屯 → 升
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 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
東山救亂，處婦思夫。勞我君子，役無休已。
The eastern mountain campaign quells the rebellion; the wife at home longs for her husband. Toiling, my noble lord; service without rest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder transform into earth above wind: initial difficulty pushes upward through patient effort. The 'Eastern Mountain' campaign quells the rebellion, while at home the wife aches for her absent husband. She labors over her lord's affairs, and his service knows no rest. This directly references the Shijing ode 'Dong Shan,' attributed to the Duke of Zhou's eastern expedition to suppress the rebellion of the Three Monitors. The poem is told from the soldier's perspective, imagining his wife's longing during his three-year absence. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Pushing Upward, wood grows slowly within the earth, ascending by steady accumulation. The soldier's grinding service and the wife's patient endurance together embody Sheng's upward movement: gradual, costly, and sustained only by quiet devotion on both sides.
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