屯 → 未濟
Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5, 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 4
六四 乘馬班如。求婚媾。往吉。无不利。
Six in the fourth place means: Horse and wagon part. Strive for union. To go brings good fortune. Everything acts to further.
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.
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
愛我嬰女，牽衣不與。冀幸高貴，反曰賤下。
Loving my young daughter, tugging at her sleeve, unwilling to let go. Hoping for a noble and lofty match; but instead it is said to be lowly.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds and thunder give way to fire above water: initial difficulty remains unresolved in the perpetual crossing of Before Completion. Clinging to a beloved daughter, pulling at her clothes, unwilling to let her go. Hoping for high status and noble position, one receives instead the verdict: lowly and base. The parent's desperate grip on the child mirrors the hexagram's fundamental incompletion: fire above water, each element straining away from the other, unable to accomplish their mutual task. From Difficulty at the Beginning to Before Completion, the transformation is darkly circular. The initial difficulty of Zhun promised eventual birth; Wei Ji promises only that the crossing has not yet been made. Ambitions of elevation are met with humiliation, and the clinging embrace cannot hold what is already departing. The cycle ends without closure, as Before Completion demands.
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