中孚 → 屯
Hexagram 61: Inner Truth → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
九二 鳴鶴在陰。其子和之。我有好爵。吾與爾靡之。
Nine in the second place means: A crane calling in the shade. Its young answers it. I have a good goblet. I will share it with you.
Line 6
上九 翰音登于天。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
蝗齧我稻，驅不可去。實穗无有，但見空藁。
Locusts gnaw my rice; I drive them but they will not leave. No grain in the ears; only empty stalks remain.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind stirs above the lake, but the fields are ravaged. Locusts gnaw the rice, impossible to drive away no matter how one tries. The full ears of grain are gone; only empty stalks remain. The image is elemental devastation: a farmer watches helplessly as the swarm consumes everything, leaving husks where harvest should be. From Inner Truth to Difficulty at the Beginning, the lake's transparency meets thunder churning beneath water — clouds that gather but cannot rain. Sincerity alone cannot repel a plague; trust in good faith becomes powerless against indiscriminate destruction. The verse captures that cruel juncture where honest effort meets forces beyond negotiation, and the new beginning that follows must rise from emptiness.
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