I Ching Kan Meaning: Hexagram 29 Explained

Draw Kan 坎 and in class someone often says straight: water, danger, bad luck. Then asks whether they can change the day and ask again.

Kan is indeed danger. It is called 習坎, repeated Kan. 習 is repeating, water coming layer after layer. Not falling into a pit once. Outside the pit there is still a pit. What this hexagram teaches is not “you are cursed.” It is how to walk in danger: there is sincerity, hold the heart and it opens, walking has honor. The heart still opens; the road can still be walked. Treat Kan as simple disaster, and you will jump once more in the hole.

Repeated Kan: water stacked on water, danger stacked on danger

The Abysmal / Water. Kan above and Kan below. The judgment writes repeated Kan. Repeated Kan is doubled danger. One Kan is already a pit; two Kans are a pit inside a pit. Water’s virtue is flowing, not filling in one pour. Water flows and does not fill: flowing, not overflowing. Walking danger without losing its trust: walking in danger, trust still there.

Above and below both Kan, no reverse problem, but people often read Kan as Dui 兌, or as Kun (Oppression) 困. Dui is lake, joy, opening the mouth. Kan is water in a pit, sinking. Oppression is Lake over Water, Dui above, Kan below, water under the lake, cannot come out. Jian 蹇 is Water over Mountain, Kan above, Gen below, water on the mountain, the feet hard. Kan is danger itself. Pi 否’s not opening, Bo 剝’s being emptied: the flavor also differs. Pi is qi not meeting; Bo is the bed being pared; Kan is a person in a pit still having to walk.

The Xugua says: 「物不可以終過，故受之以坎。坎者，陷也。」 Things cannot stay in excess to the end; therefore Kan follows. Kan is sinking. Before it is Da Guo 大過. Excess finished, cannot excess forever; next is sinking. After an extraordinary move is walked, the ground is pits. So draw Kan, sometimes it is Da Guo’s aftereffect: crossed, water still there.

The judgment does not write you dead: 「習坎，有孚，維心亨，行有尚。」 There is sincerity: trust still there, truth still there. Hold the heart and it opens: hold the heart, the heart still opens. Walking has honor: walk and there will be merit, you will be honored. Kan is not telling you to lie at the hole’s bottom waiting for rescue. It tells you to take trust and walk that small step.

The Tuan also says Heaven’s danger cannot be climbed, Earth’s danger is mountains and hills, kings and dukes set danger to guard the state. Danger can also be used. Draw Kan: not necessarily being harmed. Sometimes you have to set a defence, understand water, understand law — this kind of made danger. The time and use of danger is great.

The Xiang says: 「水洊至，習坎。君子以常德行，習教事。」 Water coming again and again, repeated Kan. The superior person makes virtuous conduct constant, practices teaching affairs. Water comes again, again. What people should do is make virtue daily, practice what should be practiced until familiar. Practice danger, also practice teaching. Last-minute clutching will not pass repeated Kan.

Career and wealth: walk small gains; do not turn the board in a hole

Ask about career and draw Kan: overall obstruction. Funds stuck, regulations stuck, people stuck, one pit after another. It can be water: logistics, cash flow, overseas, a rainy season. It can be thieves, a lawsuit, a low. In strategy, nine in the second writes it plain: Kan has danger, seek a small gain. In danger only seek that small cut. Finish this week, close this account, fill this license. A great turnaround, a story of flipping once: most easily sends a person from Kan into the pit-within-a-pit.

The most expensive tuition then is “jump once more and I am out.” Initial six, repeated Kan, enter the pit-within-a-pit, unlucky. 窞 is a pit inside a pit. Just come in and jump to the deepest. Draw the initial six: I almost always advise, stop first, admit this is Kan, do not gamble with a larger move. Six in the third, coming and going Kan and Kan, danger and using it as a pillow, enter the pit-within-a-pit, do not use. Coming and going both danger, sleeping on danger, still advancing into the hole. Do not use. This line appears: any new plan, new leverage, new campaign — set it aside first.

For wealth, Kan is like water flowing in a pit: it can come in, and leak out. Sincerity matters: credit, contracts, receipts, tax that should be paid. Still daring to fake in danger: digging the Kan deeper yourself. Seek a small gain, used on wealth: small amounts, checkable, able to hold in the hand. Large tearing down an east wall, guarantees, risky investment related to water: treat as a red light. Nine in the fifth, Kan not filling, only already level, no blame: the pit almost level, not yet full. Do not fill too full, do not announce already out of danger. Level, no blame. Pour again, overflow again, another round of repeating.

Law, contracts, investigation: drawing Kan is not few. A jar of wine, two vessels of food, using earthenware, passing a covenant in at the window: one jar of wine, two food vessels, earthenware, pass the agreement in from the window. Ritual is not in abundance, in sincerity. Draw six in the fourth: negotiating, settling, getting words into the other person’s heart — beneficial to be simple, true, walk the window that can open. A great scene, a great array: in danger, no use.

People: not every silence is a pit, but this time the road is truly hard

Ask about love and draw Kan: between the two, like water in between. Cannot see, or see and still like speaking in danger. Not necessarily a breakup. Seeking a great promise now, seeking to say it clearly once, seeking a public turnaround: low efficiency. Seek a small gain: first report safety, first finish this week’s meeting, first stop the hurting sentence. Sleeping on danger is six in the third: knowing this relationship is in a pit, still treating the pit as a bed.

If you are already together, Kan reminds you of sincerity. No trust, the heart cannot open. There can be doubt; checking should be small, real — not using larger danger to test the other person. Upper six, bound with ropes, placed in a thicket of thorns, three years cannot get out, unlucky: ropes tied, thrown into thorns, three years cannot come out. Draw the upper six: a relationship, a lawsuit, a thought, already bound dead. Untie the rope; do not tighten more. Three years cannot get: time will be long. Stop early, more useful than talking true love in a thicket.

If you are single and draw Kan, a connection is in danger. You may meet someone themselves in a pit, or the occasion is wrong. First walk, first fish yourself from the pit-within-a-pit to the pit’s edge, then talk of love. Using a new relationship to save a low: commonly entering the pit-within-a-pit.

Workplace people and Kan: little information, thin trust, every step like probing. Less stating a position, less passing words, finish your proper work. Six in the fourth’s passing a covenant in at the window, used at work: walk a private channel that can open, send sincerity, no need to open a great meeting. A great meeting is what Qian 乾’s flying dragon uses, not what repeated Kan uses.

Sincerity, small gains, do not jump toward the hole’s bottom

In class I pick five lines, treating Kan as a waterway you can still walk, not an obituary.

Initial six: 習坎，入于坎窞，凶. Repeated danger just starting, a person falls into the deepest hole. Unlucky. Draw this line: do not use “this time I really go all out” as courage. Going all out is going down. First the shore of coming up, first seek breath.

Nine in the second: 坎有險，求小得. Yang in danger, firm and centered. Can only seek small. Draw this line: list this week’s three smallest, most real things, finish them. Do not list a three-year vision. A small gain is a living road.

Six in the third: 來之坎坎，險且枕，入于坎窞，勿用. Coming is Kan, going is Kan. Treat danger as a pillow. Advance again, the pit-within-a-pit. Do not use. Draw this line: any “try once more” first assume it is going down. If you can not use, do not use.

Six in the fourth: 樽酒簋貳，用缶，納約自牖，終無咎. Simple wine and food, an earthen bowl, passed in at the window. No blame in the end. Draw this line: in danger there is still a seam that opens. Sincere, simple, walk the right window. Need not be abundant, need not walk the main door. Between people, sometimes a window is safer than a great door.

Upper six: 係用徽纆，置于叢棘，三歲不得，凶. 徽纆 are ropes. A thicket of thorns. Three years cannot get out. Unlucky. Draw this line: first ask what you are bound by — a contract, face, a relationship that will not go, a Song 訟 not finished. Untie, more useful than struggling. Struggle will push the thorns deeper.

Nine in the fifth I often add: Kan not filling, only already level, no blame. Almost level, not yet full. People out of danger most easily pour another bucket to celebrate when almost level. Level is enough. Do not fill.

So when people say “I drew Kan, luck is low,” ask again: the first line’s falling as soon as you come in, or nine in the second still able to gain small? In a low there is still a way to walk. Do not walk, and repeated Kan becomes a thicket.

In class I have students do three steps for Kan

First step, name this danger. Water, thieves, law, illness, debt, people: which kind. If the name is unclear, the small gain later will be grabbed wrong.

Second step, only allowed to seek one small gain. Write it on paper, small enough this week can finish. Finished, then the next small gain. Do not draw a great escape road on paper.

Third step, check whether you are jumping toward the pit-within-a-pit. A new gamble, a new person, a new statement: is it tightening the rope another circle. If yes, do not use.

After Da Guo is Kan. The previous: I Ching Da Guo Meaning | Hexagram 28 How to Read: Preponderance of the Great, a Bending Beam. After sinking there must be something to cling to; the next is Li 離: I Ching Li Meaning | Hexagram 30 How to Read: The Clinging, Fire and Attaching to Light. Also in danger, Oppression is cannot come out, Jian is cannot walk; compare I Ching Kun (Oppression) Meaning | Hexagram 47 How to Read, I Ching Jian Meaning | Hexagram 39 How to Read. Kan is danger itself; Oppression is water under the lake; Jian is seeing danger and able to stop. Three kinds of hardness, ways of walking different.

I Ching Kan FAQ

Is Kan a lawsuit, is someone harming me?

It can be obstruction, water, thieves, law, a low — not necessarily someone harming. Sincerity starts from your own trust. Come in looking for an enemy, and you easily get six in the third’s coming and going Kan and Kan. If there truly is Song, walk six in the fourth: simple, sincere, leave a window. Do not first enter the pit-within-a-pit yourself.

Seek a small gain: is it telling me I have no ambition?

Ambition in danger is a small gain you can still get. A flying dragon is Qian nine in the fifth’s matter. Kan nine in the second able to gain small is already firm and centered. Hear small gain as no will, and the next step is often covering the head or entering the pit-within-a-pit.

I asked about health, travel, and drew Kan. How do I read it?

Water, kidneys, ears, blood, a slippery road, a low, mood sinking: all common. Not every Kan is a great illness. It reminds you to walk in danger: checks should be done; risky sport, wine, a night road, take in first. Travel and Kan: leave slack for variables. Do not hurry a water road at night.

Original Kan, changing Li: out of danger?

The direction is toward clinging, toward brightness. The process still has to pass Kan. In the pit you see light; you still have to walk this stretch of water. You can prepare the place you will attach to. Need not, at the hole’s bottom, treat yourself as already standing on fire.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.