屯 → 井
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 48: The Well
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
大蛇當路，使季畏懼。湯火之災，切近我膚。賴其天幸，趨於王廬。
A great serpent blocks the road, making the youngest terrified. The calamity of boiling water and fire presses close upon my skin. By heaven’s grace alone, one reaches the king’s abode.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder transform into water above wind: initial difficulty finds its way to the inexhaustible well. A great serpent blocks the road, terrifying the younger traveler. Fire and boiling water threaten the skin. Yet, by heaven's fortune, the traveler reaches the king's lodge safely. The serpent as road-blocker appears throughout the Yilin as a figure of sudden, visceral danger. The narrow escape from scalding and venom maps perfectly onto the passage from Zhun to The Well: the traveler passes through mortal peril to reach an enduring source of nourishment. The well's water rises through wood, sustaining the community. From Difficulty at the Beginning to The Well, initial chaos gives way to institutional depth: the resource that never runs dry, found only by those who survive the approach.
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