Scryway

Hexagram 3

屯 Zhūn · Difficult beginnings

Legge: Kun

☵ Water (Kǎn) above ☳ Thunder (Zhèn)

Scryway summary

Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.

A start that is tangled and slow. Gather helpers, sort things out and do not force the pace.

The judgment

Kun (indicates that in the case which it presupposes) there will be great progress and success, and the advantage will come from being correct and firm. (But) any movement in advance should not be (lightly) undertaken. There will be advantage in appointing feudal princes.

The image

(The trigram representing) clouds and (that representing) thunder form Kun. The superior man, in accordance with this, (adjusts his measures of government) as in sorting the threads of the warp and woof.

The lines, bottom to top

  1. Bottom line, solid

    The first line, undivided, shows the difficulty (its subject has) in advancing. It will be advantageous for him to abide correct and firm; advantageous (also) to be made a feudal ruler.

  2. Second line, broken

    The second line, divided, shows (its subject) distressed and obliged to return; (even) the horses of her chariot (also) seem to be retreating. (But) not by a spoiler (is she assailed), but by one who seeks her to be his wife. The young lady maintains her firm correctness, and declines a union. After ten years she will be united, and have children.

  3. Third line, broken

    The third line, divided, shows one following the deer without (the guidance of) the forester, and only finding himself in the midst of the forest. The superior man, acquainted with the secret risks, thinks it better to give up the chase. If he went forward, he would regret it.

  4. Fourth line, broken

    The fourth line, divided, shows (its subject as a lady), the horses of whose chariot appear in retreat. She seeks, however, (the help of) him who seeks her to be his wife. Advance will be fortunate; all will turn out advantageously.

  5. Fifth line, solid

    The fifth line, undivided, shows the difficulties in the way of (its subject's) dispensing the rich favours that might be expected from him. With firmness and correctness there will be good fortune in small things; (even) with them in great things there will be evil.

  6. Top line, broken

    The topmost line, divided, shows (its subject) with the horses of his chariot obliged to retreat, and weeping tears of blood in streams.

Quoted from James Legge (trans.), The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1882. Public domain. The image is from Legge’s Appendix II. Words in parentheses are Legge’s additions.