Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning

Enthusiasm
Thunder / Earth
Difficulty at the Beginning
Water / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5).

Line 1

初六 鳴豫。凶。

míngproclaiming
readiness
xiōngdisappointing

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。

yóuat the source
readiness
there is with much
yǒuto have
to gain
do not
hesitation
péngcompanions
gather
zānas

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。

zhēnpersistent
affliction
hénga long time
without
dying

Six in the fifth place means: Persistently ill, and still does not die.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramThunder WaterThe Arousing → The Deep
Lower TrigramEarth ThunderThe Receptive → The Arousing

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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