屯
GUA 03 · ZHUN
RALLYING
Overall Image (大象)
Clouds and thunder
Rallying
The noble young one, accordingly, sorts warp from weft▼
Overall Image (大象)
Clouds and thunder
Rallying
The noble young one, accordingly, sorts warp from weft
This is only a heavy storm, not nature’s cruelty or wrath, but to the young sprout, it’s an unplanned test of a right to survive in a world suspiciously too full of youth. Just life against chaos, there is nothing personal going on here. First it was stones where he wanted his roots and now this. In the blinding rain, with pressing needs, goals are lost to view, except to keep from coming undone. Impatient frustration just leads to more tangles. He cannot impose his plan with all this defending to do. The young noble locates his feet and stays put, humbly calling on helpers, noting his losses, counting his blessings. The warp is what will persist: this is first to sort.
Main Judgment (Rallying) (卦辞)
Supreme fulfillment
Worthwhile to be persistent
Not at all useful to have somewhere to go
Worthwhile to enlist delegates▼
Main Judgment (Rallying) (卦辞)
Supreme fulfillment
Worthwhile to be persistent
Not at all useful to have somewhere to go
Worthwhile to enlist delegates
The sky fills with chaos while heaven creates. The desperate young thing is faced with few choices, none by design or deserved. And when it seems to be only you, against all the chaotic world, the trick is to rethink what ‘you’ is, to include the sum of your helpers and all the resources at hand. Collect the wits first and start turning things to advantage. The one who can even use losses will be the one who’s set back the least. Even while on the defensive, when you cannot impose the least part of your plan, a humble niche can still be fought for and won, given the right-sized ambition. Then struggle becomes future fitness and loss just the loss of things never needed. The human mind is so skilled at taking advantage from trial and tests that folks can look back in time and declare, with the straightest of faces: All this happened to me for reasons unknown at the time, but this must have been part of some greater plan. But in fact the reason here is only the method of life, stealing just a little more order from chaos, one small life at a time. Coherence, persistence of order, is no great rule directing heaven or all of the powers that be. Keeping order is life’s little challenge.
Key Words (关键词)
Struggle, difficult beginning, birth/growth/early/first trials, frustration, confusion▼
Key Words (关键词)
Struggle, difficult beginning, birth/growth/early/first trials, frustration, confusion
Needing assistance, reinforcement, concentration, coherence, pulling (it) together Fallback, triage, retrenchment, regrouping, muster; to minimize loss, hold/bear up Prioritizing, consolidating a position, using reserves; the write off, the rainy day Courtship metaphor for confusion, frustration and turmoil; young sprout as Zhen Frustrated anticipation, the loss of unhatched chickens, the linearity of expectation
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Kan-Li Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Mars in Water
planet:Mars
element:Water
Tarot
card:Five of Cups
suit:Cups
Qabalah
note:Geburah in Briah
sphere:Geburah
The Lines
11st • YangCliffs all around
Worthwhile to maintain resolve
Worthwhile to enlist delegates▼
1
1st • YangCliffs all around
Worthwhile to maintain resolve
Worthwhile to enlist delegates
03.1x Even with cliffs all around
The objective to make progress (is) correct
* By respecting the lowly (and) disregarded
The great gain humanity
Life’s road was recently so full of promise, then it showed itself to be a dead end. Echoes are sending mixed signals, the crowded horizon might as well be a maze. Where terrain is not mapped or charted, wrong turns are not a mistake, and yet they still need some fixing. It begins with getting the lay of the land, mapping the options, charting a course: tasks not done while forging ahead with great strides and pushy ideas. You could even stop and ask for directions, or follow the water downstream to get out, or follow your own footsteps back. All suggest that humility saves time and trouble. Maintaining resolve is not always maintaining direction. Sometimes the course is defined, the givens are a ‘take that.’ Whether humbled by choice or making bad choices, if humility leads to success it is not a lesser idea.
22nd • YangIt seems like needing assistance is the same as turning back
A team of four horses arrayed alike
Not an adversary but a marital suitor*
The woman, of tender years, is resolved: no babies
Ten years, then babies▼
2
2nd • YangIt seems like needing assistance is the same as turning back
A team of four horses arrayed alike
Not an adversary but a marital suitor*
The woman, of tender years, is resolved: no babies
Ten years, then babies
03.2x Six second has difficulties
Overcoming resolve
* Ten years, then babies:
Revise the rules
He thought that the hard part was over, once he and his horses were ready to go. His team is assembled and his presence majestic. He will sweep her from her feet. So he holds his breath, paces and waits for a sign. And tries not to look like a fool. Just what is he courting here? He keeps a tight hold on those horses, and ponders this a bit longer, and envies the robber who can be more straightforward and also even less welcome. There are affairs best put in order by not beginning them yet, and sides to some situations that call for perceptions broader than those of a fool on love’s errands. Does he want strings and tangles to sort? In a state of mind with warp and weft so confused? With implications and complications: the rules are on the run here. Recover ten years in advance: let them go and head back to normal.
33rd • YangPursuing the deer without preparation or forester*
All alone, going into the heart of the forest
The noble young one is discerning
Which is not the same thing as quitting
To proceed would be embarrassing▼
3
3rd • YangPursuing the deer without preparation or forester*
All alone, going into the heart of the forest
The noble young one is discerning
Which is not the same thing as quitting
To proceed would be embarrassing
03.3x Pursuing the deer without preparation (or forester):
In order to follow the game
* The noble young one gives this up
To proceed (is) embarrassment (and) futility
He was told that delegates could be appointed, but somehow thought this inferior. So, armed with some training in poetry, but ill advised by instinctive knowledge and lacking in second hand wisdom, our hero sets out to tame the wilds in three days, and looks for mistakes he can learn from. So eager is he to bring home a nice prize that he fails to notice the storm. The dark clouds obscure all sense of direction. Rain erases his tracks. All of the things that he needs to know now were learned long ago by his culture, yet tonight he might need to reinvent fire. To scout and to track and to orienteer were mastered ages ago by the deer, who know the turf too, and all of its hazards and tricks. The goal will win, not be won here. Luckily, deer don’t eat meat. But if he can learn, this hunt will bring food for thought, for many years to come.
44th • YangA team of four horses arrayed alike
The quest of a marital suitor
To advance is promising
Without doubt worthwhile▼
4
4th • YangA team of four horses arrayed alike
The quest of a marital suitor
To advance is promising
Without doubt worthwhile
03.4x To ask and then to proceed
(Shows) clarity
His horses would not be arrayed and bedecked in their finest if he wanted his aims and agenda kept secret. And yet if he followed only his aims, instead of the signals and signs, there would be no communion today. To succeed means also to follow. His mind has held on long enough, awaiting some sort of good signal. Good sense said not to come with no sign, but he will not wait for two of them just to be sure. This seems to be it: she does not look away, and so forward he goes to his maiden, the bright, happy fool he has waited to be. His mind, with all its reins and restraints, steps down as his ruler. His new leader knows what to do, having practiced more years than the mind can count, nor would it let mind forget. Why did she say yes? What’s wrong with her? Ask later. For now, they are both in good, loving hands.
55th • YangCollecting one’s riches
A little persistence is promising
A lot of persistence has pitfalls▼
5
5th • YangCollecting one’s riches
A little persistence is promising
A lot of persistence has pitfalls
03.5x Collecting one’s riches:
The ramifications (are) not yet revealed
The rainy day will arrive, but it will always look different somehow from the one which was planned or allowed for. The wherewithal banked or hoarded or saved for such times is not an accessible wealth. True riches are mobile, liquid and spent. The right amount of insurance will not cover every conceivable problem, but asks what needs to be covered and why, or to be discounted and where - what futures are worth less today than tomorrow. The investment goes nowhere, or does little good, while returns will diminish in proportion to fear and exaggeration of risk. Saving up to save oneself can economize on economy using delegates, neighbors and pools. One spare of every possible thing in one’s house will tie up half of one’s holdings. But one spare of each thing in each hamlet shows a rich understanding of wealth.
6Top • YangA team of four horses arrayed alike
Tears of blood, flowing like water▼
6
Top • YangA team of four horses arrayed alike
Tears of blood, flowing like water
03.6x Tears of blood, flowing like water:
How could this be continued?
The courtship goes terribly wrong: all of his glory proves to be not good enough. He broadcasts the loss of his mind now, each false hope cries out as it dies. This is, of course, the end of the world, tomorrow will not come around any more. Pain is now always, and happiness never. He is now lost - a loser, a failure, selected against and denied. But perhaps he was merely too full of himself, with too much expected, too little attended, and all of this leaking of his is just a way to leak out of an outlet, and what he has is more than he needs, and not less than he needs at all. Why make a little misfortune enormous? Why this much mourning for something now known to have had no real chance? Why make the short road endless? A problem of simple proportion. Things begin great as illusions, but the real begins and ends uninflated.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 3 begins on Page 78-86.
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