屯 → 蹇
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
為季求婦，家在東海。水長無船，不見所歡。
Seeking a wife for the youngest brother; her family lives by the eastern sea. The water stretches with no boat; the beloved is never seen.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder transform into water upon mountain: initial difficulty compounds into layered obstruction. Seeking a bride for a younger brother, the family learns she lives across the eastern sea. The water stretches endlessly with no boat in sight, and the beloved remains unseen. The verse echoes 3-9 (Zhun to Small Taming) with its river-crossing frustration, but here the obstacle is magnified from a river to an ocean. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Obstruction, water pools atop the mountain, blocking every path forward. Jian's response to obstruction is to turn inward and cultivate virtue, but the verse dwells on the pain of separation: longing persists, the sea refuses to part, and no practical means of reunion exists. The gentleman reflects on his own conduct because action is genuinely impossible.
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