晉 → 屯
Hexagram 35: Progress → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 晉如摧如。貞吉。罔孚。裕无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Progressing, but turned back. Perseverance brings good fortune. If one meets with no confidence, one should remain calm. No mistake.
Line 4
九四 晉如鼫鼠。貞厲。
Nine in the fourth place means: Progress like a hamster. Perseverance brings danger.
Line 5
六五 悔亡。失得勿恤。往吉无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: Remorse disappears. Take not gain and loss to heart. Undertakings bring good fortune. Everything serves to further.
Line 6
上九 晉其角。維用伐邑。厲吉无咎。貞吝。
Nine at the top means: Making progress with the horns is permissible Only for the purpose of punishing one's own city. To be conscious of danger brings good fortune. No blame. Perseverance brings humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
魚蛇之怪，大人憂懼，梁君好城，失其安居。
Monstrous portent of fish and snake; the great man trembles in dread. The lord of Liang loved his walls; yet lost his peaceful dwelling.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire rises above the earth, but strange portents trouble the land. Fish and serpents bring monstrous omens, causing great men to tremble with dread. The Lord of Liang delights in building city walls, yet loses his own place of peace. In classical tradition, freakish animal apparitions — fish behaving like snakes, serpents appearing where they should not — signal disorder in the natural and political order. The Lord of Liang, consumed by construction projects, mirrors rulers who pour resources into displays of power while neglecting the foundations of stable governance. From Progress to Difficulty at the Beginning, the transformation captures this precisely: what should be a bright advance dissolves into the chaos of a thunderstorm over newly stirred waters, where misplaced priorities turn initial momentum into confusion.
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