明夷 → 屯
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 明夷于南狩。得其大首。不可疾貞。
Nine in the third place means: Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south. Their great leader is captured. One must not expect perseverance too soon.
Line 5
六五 箕子之明夷。利貞。
Six in the fifth place means: Darkening of the light as with Prince Chi. Perseverance furthers.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
日月之塗，所行必到，无有患悔。
The path of sun and moon; where they travel, they surely arrive. There is no regret or misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire submerged beneath the earth finds its way through cloud and thunder to a difficult new beginning. The verse invokes the path of sun and moon — whatever road they travel, they inevitably arrive — and concludes with no regret. This is a concise statement of cosmic regularity: even when light is suppressed, the celestial bodies continue their circuits. The imagery resonates with the oracle bone tradition where solar eclipses were tracked but never feared as permanent. From Darkening of the Light to Difficulty at the Beginning, the transformation captures how buried luminance re-emerges through struggle. Thunder stirs beneath water, and the first shoots break frozen ground — arrival is certain, though the road passes through hardship.
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