屯 → 離
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
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.
Line 5
九五 屯其膏。小貞吉。大貞凶。
Nine in the fifth place means: Difficulties in blessing. A little perseverance brings good fortune. Great perseverance brings misfortune.
Line 6
上六 乘馬班如。泣血漣如。
Six at the top means: Horse and wagon part. Bloody tears flow.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
陰變為陽，女化作男。治道得通，君臣相承。
Yin transforms into yang; the female changes into male. The way of governance is made clear; lord and minister succeed one another.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder transform into doubled fire: initial chaos gives way to luminous clarity. Yin transforms into yang, and the female turns into the male. The way of governance finds its passage, and ruler and minister sustain each other in harmony. The verse describes a fundamental inversion that paradoxically restores proper order. What was dark becomes bright, what was yielding becomes firm. From Difficulty at the Beginning to The Clinging, the doubled fire of Li illuminates all four directions. The initial tangle of thunder and water, where nothing could find its proper place, is burned away, and what remains is clear, bright, and mutually sustaining. The yin-to-yang shift signals not destruction of the feminine but the restoration of dynamic balance between complementary forces.
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