屯 → 中孚
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 61: Inner Truth
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
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
北陸閉蟄,隱伏不出。目盲耳聾,道路不通。
The northern road is sealed in hibernation; hidden and withdrawn, none go out. Eyes blind, ears deaf; the road does not open.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder yield to wind above lake: initial difficulty transforms into the hollow sincerity of Inner Truth. The Northern Road closes as creatures seal themselves in hibernation, hidden and unmoving. Eyes are blinded and ears are deafened, and the roads are completely blocked. The imagery describes the deep withdrawal of winter solstice, when all life retreats underground and all communication ceases. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Inner Truth, wind over lake should create resonance across the water's surface. Yet the verse shows a world where resonance is impossible: every sensory channel is shut, every pathway sealed. Inner Truth requires an open center, but here the center is frozen solid. The verse maps the extreme limit of Zhun's difficulty: not chaos but total closure, the absolute absence of the exchange that Inner Truth demands.
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