Hexagram 3 of 64
Difficult Beginnings
屯 Zhūn
Upper trigram: 坎 Kǎn, water
Lower trigram: 震 Zhèn, thunder
The judgment
元亨，利貞。勿用有攸往，利建侯。
Supreme success. It is fitting to hold firm. Do not undertake to go anywhere. It is fitting to establish lords.
The Great Image
雲雷，屯；君子以經綸。
Clouds and thunder: Difficult Beginnings. In the same way, the noble person lays out the threads and puts them in order.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初九
磐桓，利居貞，利建侯。
Lingering and circling. It is fitting to stay where you are and hold firm. It is fitting to establish lords.
You may be circling a decision because the ground is not ready yet. Consider staying put long enough to gather the people you would need.
Line 2 六二
屯如邅如，乘馬班如，匪寇婚媾，女子貞不字，十年乃字。
Stuck and turning back. Mounted on horses that mill about. They are no raiders; they come for a marriage. The woman holds firm and does not consent to betrothal. After ten years she consents.
What looks like a threat riding toward you could turn out to be an offer. Ask whether you are free to wait, even a long time, before you answer it.
Line 3 六三
即鹿无虞，惟入于林中，君子幾不如舍，往吝。
Closing on a deer with no gamekeeper, one simply enters the forest. The noble person, catching the early sign, would do better to stop. Going on brings shame.
Chasing a deer into a forest with no guide is how people get lost. If you are pursuing something in territory you do not know, ask whether stopping now would cost less than going on.
Line 4 六四
乘馬班如，求婚媾，往，吉无不利。
Mounted on horses that mill about. Seeking a marriage. Going brings good fortune, and nothing is unfavorable.
The riders hold back until someone goes out to ask. Consider making the approach yourself, if you have been waiting for an ally to make it.
Line 5 九五
屯其膏；小貞吉，大貞凶。
Its rich fat is held back. In small matters, holding firm brings good fortune. In great matters, holding firm brings misfortune.
Rich fat was a store of value, and here it is being held back. Ask whether small, quiet steps could do more for now than one large demand.
Line 6 上六
乘馬班如，泣血漣如。
Mounted on horses that mill about. Weeping blood, and it runs on and on.
The horses still circle and the weeping has not stopped. If you feel at the end of your strength, consider who could sit with you before you decide anything.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is thunder below and water above, a force pushing up under a heavy, wet sky. The character shows a sprout struggling through the ground. It stands for the hard, confused stretch at the start of anything new.
The judgment speaks of supreme success and still warns against heading off anywhere. It says to hold firm and to put helpers in place first. Ask who you would need beside you before you take the next step.
If your question is about a new venture, a move or a new relationship, tradition reads this as a time to organize and to accept that early progress is slow. The lines warn against chasing something alone in unknown country and against holding too tightly to what you have.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/屯), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In the third line, Wikisource reads 即鹿 (closing on the deer). Project Gutenberg reads 既鹿 (already at the deer).
- In the first line, Wikisource keeps 磐 and notes that it is also written 盤. The two characters mean boulder and to coil, and the word 磐桓 means lingering either way.
- Project Gutenberg writes 無 where Wikisource has 无. These are variant forms of the same word.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.