臨 → 屯
Hexagram 19: Approach → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 5).
Line 2
九二 咸臨吉。无不利。
Nine in the second place means: Joint approach. Good fortune. Everything furthers.
Line 5
六五 知臨。大君之宜。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Wise approach. This is right for a great prince. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
機關不便，不能出言；精誠不通，為人所冤。
The key rusts in the lock — the door will not open. A thousand-word letter is written but cannot be sent. Shouting through the wall, the wind scatters every word — in the right, but nowhere to plead the injustice.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above the lake encounters clouds and thunder gathering in difficult birth. The original verse reads: 'The mechanism jams and cannot speak; sincerity fails to penetrate, and one is wronged by others.' A voice locked behind rusted gates, a letter that cannot be delivered — the imagery is of blocked communication and unjust accusation. Truth exists but finds no channel; the innocent are condemned because their plea cannot reach the judge. From Approach to Difficulty at the Beginning, the lake's expansive approach collides with the storm's confusion: what should flow openly becomes trapped. Like thunder beneath floodwater struggling to break through, the wrongly accused must endure the birth-pangs of a new order before justice can emerge.
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