屯 → 大過
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 磐桓。利居貞。利建侯。
Nine at the beginning means: Hesitation and hindrance. It furthers one to remain persevering. It furthers one to appoint helpers.
Line 2
六二 屯如邅如。乘馬班如。匪寇婚媾。女子貞不字。十年乃字。
Six in the second place means: Difficulties pile up. Horse and wagon part. He is not a robber; He wants to woo when the time comes. The maiden is chaste, She does not pledge herself. Ten years–then she pledges herself.
Line 3
六三 即鹿無虞。惟入于林中。君子幾不如舍。往吝。
Six in the third place means: Whoever hunts deer without the forester Only loses his way in the forest. The superior man understands the signs of the time And prefers to desist. To go on brings humiliation.
Line 4
六四 乘馬班如。求婚媾。往吉。无不利。
Six in the fourth place means: Horse and wagon part. Strive for union. To go brings good fortune. Everything acts to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
襄送季女，至于蕩道。齊子旦夕，留連久處。
Escorting Lord Xiang’s youngest daughter; arriving at the road of Dang. The son of Qi lingers morning and evening; they stay and tarry for a long time.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder yield to lake submerging wind: initial difficulty collapses into dangerous excess. Duke Xiang escorts a younger sister to the state of Dang, but along the road the son of Qi lingers morning and evening, delaying the journey with prolonged dalliance. This likely alludes to episodes in the Zuo Zhuan involving diplomatic marriage escorts where improper romantic entanglements compromised the mission. The bride's procession, meant to seal interstate alliance, is derailed by private desire. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Great Exceeding, the ridgepole sags under weight it was never meant to bear. What should have been a straightforward ceremonial passage is warped by excess, and the lake floods the wind below, drowning propriety in indulgence.
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