屯 → 大壯
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 34: Great Power
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5).
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
冬採薇蘭，地凍堅坼。利走室北，暮無所得。
Gathering orchids and herbs in winter; the ground is frozen and cracked. Running off to the north of the house; by nightfall, nothing is gained.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder give way to thunder in heaven: initial difficulty meets overwhelming power, but power misdirected. Gathering ferns and orchids in winter, the ground frozen and cracked, one flees to the north side of the house but by evening gains nothing. The timing is completely wrong: ferns and orchids cannot be harvested in the frozen season, and the effort yields only cold and emptiness. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Great Power, thunder above heaven represents enormous force, yet the verse shows that raw power without proper timing is futile. The ground itself resists. Great strength applied at the wrong moment produces not breakthrough but exhaustion, and the searcher returns empty-handed at dusk.
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