屯 → 明夷
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
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 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
蠆室蜂戶，螫我手足。不可進取，為身害速。
A room of scorpions, a door of wasps; they sting my hands and feet. One cannot press forward; harm comes swiftly to the body.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder sink into fire buried within earth: initial difficulty deepens into concealed brilliance. A chamber filled with scorpions, a doorway swarming with wasps — they sting hands and feet until nothing can be grasped or stepped upon. Advance is impossible, for to move forward only hastens one's own injury. The imagery is of a space that should be safe, the domestic interior, turned into a trap of hidden venom. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Darkening of the Light, fire enters the earth and goes dark. The wise conceal their brightness in a hostile environment, but the verse goes further: the environment itself attacks anyone who tries to act. In the darkened age, even the threshold stings, and stillness is the only survival strategy.
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