Is line 4 of The Pit (Water) in its correct place?

It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.

Hexagram 29, line 4

六四Line 4 of The Pit (Water)

Six in the fourth place · 坎 kǎn

plain offeringthrough the windowsincerity reaches

爻辭 The line text

樽酒簋貳，用缶，納約自牖，終无咎。

The fourth line, divided, shows its subject (at a feast), with (simply) a bottle of spirits, and a subsidiary basket of rice, while (the cups and bowls) are (only) of earthenware. He introduces his important lessons (as his ruler's) intelligence admits. There will in the end be no error.

Its symbolism

樽酒簋貳，剛柔際也。

'(Nothing but) a bottle of spirits and a subsidiary basket of rice:'—(these describe) the meeting at this point of (those who are represented by) the strong and weak lines.

In plain words

'A jug of wine, a basket of grain, a second basket, in earthenware; the pledge handed in through the window: in the end, no blame.' Line four is yin in a correct place, the minister sitting directly beneath the strong ruler at five, and the image is of sincerity stripped of ceremony. No bronze, no banquet — simple food in plain vessels, delivered through the window because the door of formal access is blocked by the danger. The small Image reads the line as 'the meeting of firm and yielding' (剛柔際也): in a time of peril, what joins a minister to a ruler is plainness and trust, not display. Cheng Yi takes it as the model of how to serve someone in a crisis.

If this line is changing

Drop the formalities and reach the person who matters by the simplest honest route available; in a crisis plain sincerity gets through where protocol cannot.

Where the line stands

A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin line that moves when cast.
It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
It belongs to the upper trigram 坎 Kan (the Abysmal) (water).
It has no correspondence (無應) with line 1: both lines are yin, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.

之卦 When this line moves

坎 The Pit (Water) becomes ䷮ 47 困 Confinement

A lake with no water in it: exhaustion. Success is still possible for the great person who stays correct — words are not believed now, so prove yourself by steadiness.

What it becomes47 · 困 Confinementkùn

The six lines of 坎 The Pit (Water)

Read 坎 The Pit (Water) for a question about

Love and relationships Work and career A yes-or-no decision

Questions about this line

What does Six in the fourth place of hexagram 29, The Pit (Water), mean?: 'A jug of wine, a basket of grain, a second basket, in earthenware; the pledge handed in through the window: in the end, no blame.' Line four is yin in a correct place, the minister sitting directly beneath the strong ruler at five, and the image is of sincerity stripped of ceremony. No bronze, no banquet — simple food in plain vessels, delivered through the window because the door of formal access is blocked by the danger. The small Image reads the line as 'the meeting of firm and yielding' (剛柔際也): in a time of peril, what joins a minister to a ruler is plainness and trust, not display. Cheng Yi takes it as the model of how to serve someone in a crisis.
What does hexagram 29 become when line 4 changes?: The Pit (Water) becomes hexagram 47, 困 Confinement: A lake with no water in it: exhaustion. Success is still possible for the great person who stays correct — words are not believed now, so prove yourself by steadiness.
Is line 4 of The Pit (Water) in its correct place?: It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.

Cast a reading Hexagram 29 in full Changing lines explained

Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).