屯 → 恆
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 32: Duration
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
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.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
多載重負，捐棄于野。予母誰子，但自勞苦。
Carrying many heavy burdens; abandoning them in the wilds. Who is the mother to this child? Only she herself toils and suffers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder give way to thunder and wind in steady union: initial difficulty settles into endurance, but endurance here is bitter. Overloaded with heavy burdens, goods are abandoned by the roadside. 'Whose child am I?' the traveler asks — there is only solitary toil and suffering. The verse strips Duration of any romance: to persist is merely to keep carrying what cannot be put down, alone and unrecognized. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Duration, thunder above wind sustains motion without rest. The hexagram promises constancy, but the verse reveals its shadow: when endurance becomes mere drudgery without purpose or companionship, it grinds the spirit to dust. The traveler endures not by choice but because there is nowhere to stop.
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