Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 60: Limitation

Difficulty at the Beginning
Water / Thunder
Limitation
Water / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).

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。

zhūnsummoning help
it may seems
zhānturning around
is the same as
chénga team of four
horses
bānarrayed
alike
fěiit
kòuassailant
hūnmarital
gòusuitor
lady
young
zhēndetermined
no
babies
shíten more
niányears
nǎiand
babies

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.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWater Water
Lower TrigramThunder LakeThe Arousing → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

眾神集眾,相與議語。南國虐亂,百姓愁苦。興師征討,更立賢主。

The assembled spirits gather; they confer and discuss together. The southern state is cruel and disordered; the people grieve and suffer. Raising an army to campaign and punish; they set up a worthy lord.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Clouds and thunder transform into water above lake: initial difficulty finds resolution through measured regulation. The assembled spirits gather and deliberate together. In the southern kingdom, tyranny and chaos reign, and the common people suffer bitterly. An army is raised to campaign against the oppressor, and a worthy new ruler is installed. The verse narrates divine assembly leading to political action: the gods convene, diagnose the injustice, and authorize military intervention to replace a tyrant. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Limitation, water above lake establishes proper boundaries. Jie's principle of measured constraint transforms Zhun's raw chaos into regulated order: not unlimited force but proportioned response, not perpetual revolution but a single decisive correction that installs right governance and then stops.

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