恆 → 屯
Hexagram 32: Duration → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 浚恆貞凶。无攸利。
Six at the beginning means: Seeking duration too hastily brings misfortune persistently. Nothing that would further.
Line 2
九二 悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: Remorse disappears.
Line 3
九三 不恆其德。或承之羞。貞吝。
Nine in the third place means: He who does not give duration to his character Meets with disgrace. Persistent humiliation.
Line 4
九四 田无禽。
Nine in the fourth place means: No game in the field.
Line 5
六五 恒其德貞。婦人吉。夫子凶。
Six in the fifth place means: Giving duration to one's character through perseverance. This is good fortune for a woman, misfortune for a man.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
開門除憂，伯自外來，切切無患，我之得歡。
Opening the gate, dispelling worry; the elder brother comes from without. With earnest care, no calamity; we find our joy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above wind, Duration's steady pulse, opens into cloud and thunder — Difficulty at the Beginning's gathering storm of new potential. The door swings open and worry dissolves; the elder brother arrives from outside. Anxious fears prove groundless, and joy is restored. Duration holds its pattern until the moment breaks: the gate opens precisely because the waiting was sustained. The elder brother's return suggests reunion after long separation, a constancy rewarded. From Duration to Difficulty at the Beginning, the enduring rhythm encounters the birth pangs of something new. What seemed like interminable waiting was in fact the necessary prelude — thunder below water, the storm that precedes the sprout's emergence through frozen soil.
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