豫 → 屯
Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 鳴豫。凶。
Six at the beginning means: Enthusiasm that expresses itself Brings misfortune.
Line 4
九四 由豫。大有得。勿疑。朋盍簪。
Nine in the fourth place means: The source of enthusiasm. He achieves great things. Doubt not. You gather friends around you As a hair clasp gathers the hair.
Line 5
六五 貞疾。恆不死。
Six in the fifth place means: Persistently ill, and still does not die.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
文厄羑里,湯拘夏臺;仁聖不害,數困何憂。
King Wen was imprisoned at Youli; Tang was confined at Xia Tai. The humane and sage are not harmed -- though numbered among the trapped, what cause for worry?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rises from the earth in jubilation, yet the verse recalls two sages imprisoned unjustly. King Wen languished at Youli under the Shang tyrant; King Tang was held at Xiatai by King Jie of Xia. Both endured confinement before founding great dynasties. The verse's logic is paradoxical comfort: if the benevolent and sagely cannot be ultimately harmed, why worry when fate deals its blows? From Enthusiasm to Difficulty at the Beginning, the transformation maps perfectly: initial exuberance meets the gathering clouds and thunder of a world not yet ordered. Yet within that chaos lies the seed of all that follows — the sage endures the storm precisely because his virtue is the organizing principle the world needs.
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