Water upon water: danger repeated, one ravine after another. Kan is the hexagram of serious difficulty. Its lesson comes from water itself, which flows through danger without losing its nature, filling each hollow before moving on. Stay sincere, keep your inner heart clear and keep moving, and you can pass through even repeated danger.
Judgment
習坎：有孚，維心亨，行有尚。
Doubled ravine: with sincerity, the heart holds firm and gets through. Action brings honor.
Image
水洊至，習坎；君子以常德行，習教事。
Water arrives again and again: the doubled ravine. Taking this as a model, the noble one makes goodness a constant habit and keeps rehearsing the work of teaching.
- Facing danger
- Repeated difficulty
- Sincerity of heart
- Persistence like water
- Learning through hardship
- danger
- difficulty
- sincerity
- flow
- courage
- persistence
- In danger, keep your inner truth steady.
- Like water, keep moving and fill each hollow.
- Repeated hardship can be a teacher.
The six lines
Lines are numbered from the bottom. In a reading, only the lines that are changing apply to your cast.
Line 1Six at the beginning 初六
Line text
習坎，入于坎窞，凶。
Doubled ravine: one falls into a pit inside the ravine. Misfortune.
Becoming used to danger, you slip into a bad habit or deeper trouble. Familiarity with difficulty can make you careless. Find the way out.
- Habituation to danger
- Sinking deeper
- Getting used to a harmful situation
- Recognizing the pattern and stepping out
Line 2Nine in the second place 九二
Line text
坎有險，求小得。
The ravine is dangerous. Seek small gains.
You cannot escape the danger yet. Don't attempt everything at once; aim for small, achievable improvements.
- Small steps in danger
- Realistic goals
- Trying to solve everything at once
- Steady improvement bit by bit
Line 3Six in the third place 六三
Line text
來之坎坎，險且枕，入于坎窞，勿用。
Coming and going, ravine after ravine. In danger, lie still and bide your time, or one falls into a pit inside the ravine. Do not act.
Every move seems to lead to more danger. Stop struggling. Stay still until a clear way out appears.
- Danger on all sides
- Stillness
- Frantic action that deepens the trouble
- Clarity that comes from pausing
Line 4Six in the fourth place 六四
Line text
樽酒簋貳，用缶，納約自牖，終无咎。
A jug of wine and a bowl of grain besides, served in plain earthenware, passed in through the window. In the end, no blame.
In difficult times, sincerity matters more than ceremony. Simple, honest gestures, offered without formality, open the way.
- Simple sincerity
- Unpretentious help
- Standing on ceremony in a crisis
- Connection through plain honesty
Line 5Nine in the fifth place 九五
Line text
坎不盈，祇既平，无咎。
The ravine is not filled; it fills only to the level. No blame.
Water rises until it reaches the edge, then flows out. Don't try to do more than is needed; reaching the level of the rim is enough to get out.
- Enough is enough
- Path of least resistance
- Overambition in a difficult time
- Getting out by doing just what is needed
Line 6Six at the top 上六
Line text
係用徽纆，寘于叢棘，三歲不得，凶。
Bound with twisted cords, put among thorn hedges. For three years one does not find the way. Misfortune.
Having lost the way entirely, one is trapped by one's own errors. Recovery takes time. The line asks for honest acknowledgment of how things went wrong.
- Entrapment
- Long recovery
- Denying your part in the situation
- Beginning the long way back through honesty
Related hexagrams
Have a question on your mind?
Cast a readingChinese text: Zhouyi 周易 (received classical text). English rendering and notes: Site rendering. About our sources
Commentary
Kan is one of the four "difficult" hexagrams, doubled so that danger follows danger. The image of water is reassuring, though: water does not stop at a precipice but flows on, filling each low place, and never loses its character. The reading may suggest you are in a hard stretch, perhaps one that seems to repeat, and that the way through is constancy, not cleverness.
The judgment puts the emphasis inside: sincerity, a heart that holds firm. Actions that come from that center are respected. The image adds that the noble one practices virtue and teaching steadily, as if trained by the repetition of danger itself. In relation to a question, Kan may emphasize inner steadiness, careful step-by-step progress and avoiding desperate shortcuts.