屯 → 坎
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 2).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
朽根倒樹，花葉落去。卒逢火焱，隨風偃仆。
Rotten roots topple the tree; flowers and leaves fall away. Suddenly meeting a blazing fire; swept down by the wind, it lies prostrate.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder plunge into doubled water: initial difficulty descends into the deepest abyss. A rotten root topples the tree, flowers and leaves scatter. Then fire suddenly strikes, and the trunk collapses with the wind. The imagery layers destruction upon destruction: first organic decay from within, then catastrophic assault from without. The tree was already dying before the blaze arrived. From Difficulty at the Beginning to The Abysmal, the transformation sinks from surface chaos into structural peril. Water upon water, danger redoubled: there is no stable ground, and the fire that might have purified instead merely accelerates the collapse of what was already compromised. The lesson is stark: internal rot invites external devastation.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store