One solid line caught between two broken — light trapped in the depths, danger with a heart of clarity.
Kan is the trigram of Water, ☵: a single yang line held between two yin lines, above and below. The strong line is buried in the middle, hidden in the depths — and this is the whole figure's character. Kan is the Abysmal, the trigram of the ravine, the flood, the plunge into the deep. It is danger, but a danger that is meant to be moved through rather than avoided: water flows into the most dangerous places, fills them, and passes on. The yang line at its core is the sincerity and clarity that survives at the very center of peril.
As the second son to receive a yang line — this time into the middle place — Kan is the Middle Son. Its element is straightforwardly Water, and the Later Heaven arrangement seats it in the North, the direction of winter, midnight, and the cold deep. It stands directly across the water-fire axis from its sibling Li, the two of them the great complementary pair of the middle generation — the abyss and the flame, the hidden light and the clinging light.
In divination Kan warns of hardship, entanglement, and repeated peril, but it is not a counsel of despair: like water, one prevails by staying true to one's inner nature and flowing steadily through the danger rather than thrashing against it. Constancy of heart is the yang line at the center that carries one out the far side.
The Figure
| Attribute | Value |
|---|---|
| Glyph | ☵ |
| Image | Water |
| Attribute | Abysmal, danger |
| Family | Middle son |
| Direction (Later Heaven) | North |
| Nearest Element | Water |