Home › I Ching · 64 hexagrams › Hexagram 3
James Legge, 1899 (public domain)
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.
Chun — a sprout struggling up through the earth — is the picture of every great beginning: life arrives wrapped in difficulty. The oracle does not flatter this stage. Any movement in advance should not be lightly undertaken; first appoint your helpers and put firm men in place. The lines chart the tangle: a lord establishing himself amid the bramble; a courtship between retreating horses, ten years before the union bears fruit; a deer chased without a forester — the wise man gives up the chase rather than regret it; favours that cannot yet be dispensed; at the top, horses retreating and tears of blood in streams. Hard starts are real; the fortune belongs to those who build first and advance second.
Line 1
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.
Line 2
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.
Line 3
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.
Line 4
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.
Line 5
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.
Line 6
The topmost line, divided, shows (its subject) with the horses of his chariot obliged to retreat, and weeping tears of blood in streams.