无妄

Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 25: Innocence

Difficulty at the Beginning
Water / Thunder
无妄
Innocence
Heaven / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 6).

Line 4

六四 乘馬班如。求婚媾。往吉。无不利。

chénga team of four
horses
bānarrayed
alike
qiúquest
hūnmarital
gòusuitor
wǎngto go forward
promising
without
doubt
worthwhile

Six in the fourth place means: Horse and wagon part. Strive for union. To go brings good fortune. Everything acts to further.

Line 6

上六 乘馬班如。泣血漣如。

chénga team of four
horses
bānarrayed
alike
tears
xuèof blood
liánflowing
as if

Six at the top means: Horse and wagon part. Bloody tears flow.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWater HeavenThe Deep → The Creative
Lower TrigramThunder Thunder

Yilin Verse

鳴條之圖,北奔犬胡。左衽為長,國號匈奴。主君旄頭,立尊單于。

The map of Mingtiao; fleeing north to the Dog Barbarians. Wearing left-folded robes as their way, their state is called Xiongnu. Their lord follows the yak-tail standard; they set up and honor the Chanyu.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Clouds and thunder transform into heaven with thunder below: initial difficulty meets the unexpected force of Innocence. After the defeat at Mingtiao, the remnants fled north to join the Dog Barbarians. They adopted left-lapel garments as their custom, and their state took the name Xiongnu. Their lord wore the Maotou headdress and was honored as Chanyu. According to the Shiji, the Xiongnu traced their ancestry to Chunwei, a descendant of the Xia dynasty who fled northward after King Tang overthrew King Jie at Mingtiao. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Innocence, the transformation is paradoxical: what seems like catastrophic exile becomes the origin of a formidable new power. Thunder under heaven acts without deliberation; the exiles did not plan an empire but became one through the raw, unmediated force of circumstance.

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