小畜 → 屯
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
九二 牽復。吉。
Nine in the second place means: He allows himself to be drawn into returning. Good fortune.
Line 3
九三 輿說輻。夫妻反目。
Nine in the third place means: The spokes burst out of the wagon wheels. Man and wife roll their eyes.
Line 6
上九 既雨既處。尚德載。婦貞厲。月幾望。君子征凶。
Nine at the top means: The rain comes, there is rest. This is due to the lasting effect of character. Perseverance brings the woman into danger. The moon is nearly full. If the superior man persists, Misfortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
取火泉源，釣魚山顛；魚不可得，火不可然。
Seeking fire from a flowing spring, fishing atop a mountain peak. The fish cannot be caught; the fire will not ignite.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven meets cloud and thunder in birth-struggle. Someone seeks fire from a spring and tries to fish on a mountaintop — both acts absurdly misplaced. Fire cannot be kindled from water, and fish cannot be caught on stone. The verse is a parable of categorical error: pursuing goals with fundamentally wrong methods. From Small Taming to Difficulty at the Beginning, the gentle refinement of wind gives way to the turbulent emergence of Zhun, where water churns above thunder. Zhun demands that one navigate chaos with discernment, choosing the right tool for the right terrain. These inverted efforts fail precisely because they ignore the nature of what they seek.
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