屯 → 夬
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
有鳥來飛，集于古樹。鳴聲可惡，主將出去。
A bird comes flying, alighting on an ancient tree. Its cry is hateful; the master will depart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder yield to lake above heaven: initial difficulty resolves through decisive breakthrough. A bird flies in and alights upon an ancient tree. Its cries are harsh and hateful, and the master prepares to depart. The ominous bird's arrival forces a decision: stay and endure the ill omen, or leave. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Breakthrough, the lake rising above heaven is an image of decisive overflow that cannot be contained. Guai demands resolution; the bird's unpleasant cry is the catalyst that forces the issue. The master does not negotiate with the omen but simply goes, cutting the situation cleanly. Initial difficulty is not gradually resolved but abruptly abandoned, and the break itself constitutes the breakthrough.
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