屯 → 渙
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
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 6
上六 乘馬班如。泣血漣如。
Six at the top means: Horse and wagon part. Bloody tears flow.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
同枕同袍，中年相知。少賈無失，獨居愁思。
Sharing pillow and cloak; in mid-life they know each other. Small trade without loss; dwelling alone in sad thoughts.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder give way to wind above water: initial difficulty dissolves into dispersion. Sharing the same pillow and the same robe, the two become intimate friends in middle age. Trading modestly without loss, one later dwells alone in melancholy reflection. The verse traces a relationship arc: youthful intimacy, shared fortunes, then solitary old age. The companions who once slept under the same cloak eventually separate, and what remains is lonely reminiscence. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Dispersion, wind scatters the water's surface. Huan dissolves what was solid, and the verse embodies this dissolution through the natural entropy of human bonds. The initial difficulty of forging connection gives way to the slower, quieter difficulty of losing it. Dispersion is not always catastrophic; sometimes it is simply the grief of growing apart.
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