03 · 水雷屯

屯。元，亨，利，贞。勿用，有攸往，利建侯。

屯卦。大吉大利，吉利的占卜。不利于出门。有利于建国封侯。

象曰：云，雷，屯；君子以经纶。

《象辞》说：屯的上卦为坎，坎为云，下卦为震，震为雷。云行于上，雷动于下，是屯卦的卦象。君子观此卦象，取法于云雷，用云的恩泽，雷的威严来治理国事。

《断易天机》解：屯卦坎上震下，为坎宫二世卦。屯说明有困难，又象征动而逢险境，需刚毅果敢方为吉。

北宋易学家邵雍解

万物始生，开始困难；先劳后逸，苦尽甘来。

得此卦者，身处困境，宜守不宜进，须多加辛苦努力，排除困难，方可通达，有初难后解之象。

台湾国学大儒傅佩荣解

时运：宜守不宜进。

财运：创业维艰。

家宅：修缮住宅；初婚不和。

身体：保存元气。

这个卦是异卦（下震上坎）相叠，震为雷，喻动；坎为雨，喻险。雷雨交加，险象丛生，环境恶劣。“屯”原指植物萌生大地，万物始生，充满艰难险阻，然而顺时应运，必欣欣向荣。

大象：屯者难也，万事欲进而不得进。

运势：身处困境，步步为营，有初难后解之意。

事业：起初多有不利，要知难而进，小心翼翼，勇往直前，灵活机动，可望获得大的成功，时机到来时一定要抓住，却也不得操之太急，且仍有困难，务必有他人相助，故平时应多施恩惠。

经商：创业初期步履艰难，多有挫折。坚定信念最重要，不要为表面现象所迷惑，应积极进取，行动果断，打开出路。若仍无法摆脱困境，则应退守保全，等待机会，再展宏图。

求名：积极争取，主动追求，可以成功。

婚恋：好事多磨，忠贞纯洁，大胆追求，能够成功，婚姻美满。

决策：初始困难，但若具有坚忍不拔的毅力和锲而不舍的奋斗精神，前途不可估量，但往往不为他人理解而陷于孤独苦闷，事业会因此处于困难状态，需要得到贤德之人的帮助才能摆脱。如能以乐观主义精神处世，能取得成就。

《易经》之中每一卦都是一种象征，都代表着很多具体的意义。乾象征天，坤象征地，乾象征父，坤象征母，等等。乾坤二卦被称为父母卦，二卦的交相变化产生宇宙间的万事万物，而屯卦做为第三卦，它就象征了事物的开始。

《序卦》中说道：“盈天地之间者唯万物，故受之以屯。屯者，盈也；屯者，物之始生也。”充满天地之间的就是万物，所以接着出现的是屯卦。屯是盈满的意思，也是万物开始出生的意思。

屯卦为难进之象，象征着起始阶段的艰难，也就是“万事开头难”。从卦象上看，这是因上卦为坎，坎代表着艰险、凶险。下卦想前行，但是受到坎卦的阻拦，要在艰难之中行进。本卦属于下下卦。《象》中这样评断此卦：风刮乱丝不见头，颠三倒四犯忧愁，慢从款来左顺遂，急促反惹不自由。

屯卦上卦为坎为水，下卦为震为雷，所以屯卦的整体卦象为水雷屯。也就是说水与雷组合，便是屯卦的象征含义。可是“屯”字表示的是幼苗的形象，而卦象却是水与雷，这之间有什么联系呢?原来，坎在上，代表云，震在下，代表雷，乌云出现了，又出现了雷声，自然就会下雨了。只有下雨，地上的植物才能够生长，幼苗才能够有长成的希望。可见“屯”这个卦名与卦画之间是珠联璧合结合的十分巧妙。

03.水雷屯(䷂)-高岛易断

屯，上一象地，中山象草，下

象草根之屈曲，即草木穿地始出，欲伸而未能即伸之形。内卦《震》，《震》雷也，能以鼓动发育万物；外卦《坎》，坎水也，能以滋润养成万物。按：卦为雷在水中，当冬至之候。雷欲发于地下，而地上之水，冻冰凝结，为所压抑，不能遽出于地，其象艰难郁结，如物之勾萌未舒也，故名之曰《屯》。

屯：元亨利贞。勿用，有攸往，利建侯。

▲　甲骨文屯

▲　篆体屯

“元亨”二字，概括全卦之终始而言也，非谓屯之时即亨通也。凡天下之事，创业伊始，必有电难，惟能耐其辛苦，勉强不已，自然脱离屯难，终得大亨通之时也，故曰“元亨”。夫人处屯难之会，所当动性忍心，坚贞自持，安于“勿用”，不敢先时妄动，又陷于险。虽明知后日利有攸往，自得亨通，要不可轻用其往也，故曰“勿用有攸往”。此卦阳爻惟二，九五为坎险之主爻，初九为震动之主爻。九五之君，当艰难之日，欲以征伐初九有为之人，必反致招祸也，不如优待之，以为侯伯，斯得共济时艰也，故曰“利建侯”。侯者震之象，故《豫》之《彖》辞，亦曰建侯也。

《 彖传》曰：屯，刚柔始交而难生，动乎险中，大亨贞。雷雨之动满盈，天造草昧，宜建侯而不宁。

《乾》纯阳也，《坤》纯阴也，此卦内初九，外九五，二爻之刚，与四爻之柔，始相交也。内卦之震雷欲出地，而外卦之坎水遏阻之，以成屯难艰险之势，故曰“刚柔始交而难生”。《说卦传》曰“震一索而得男”，即始交之象也。又曰“震动也，坎陷也”，《震》以阳动之性，在《坎》阴之下，动而未能出也，故曰“动乎险中”。然在险难之中，能守贞正而不滥，他日自得大亨，故谓之“大亨贞”。《震》雷者，阳气之奋劲，《坎》雨者，阴泽之普施，故曰“雷雨之动满盈”。盖初九《震》之主，九五《坎》之主，故教之以无相敌害，仿雷雨之作用，使得相亲相助也。阴阳始交，故曰“天造草昧”。《说卦传》曰，震为崔苇，草字出于此；坎为月，天未明也，昧字出于此。当是时也，六四之宰相，礼遇初九之臣僚，相与辅相，使之共济时艰也，故曰“宜建侯”也。时方创业之世，非升平守成之日，岂可优游逸乐哉？故曰“不宁”。夫当此天地始创，阴阳始交，以精与气交媾，生物成象。震为崔苇，生长于互体坤地，以巩固地盘之组织，继而胎卵孵化，介类繁生。初九、九五二爻，并属阳刚，其中却含柔软坤体，为蚌蛤之象。盖万物之生，各具心灵，自能飞潜动跃，此自然之理也。我国旧俗谓主泥土之神，曰泥土煮尊，谓主沙土之神，曰沙土煮尊，主动物之神，曰面足尊，主植物之神，曰惶根尊，犹是生人之命，相传南斗主生，北斗主死者是也。故凡一物一命，皆有神主之。大凡始生之时，恰如草木逢春，其繁殖，一雨多于一雨，即“雷雨之动满盈”者也。人类繁殖，不可无大德之君以统御之也；君犹不能独治，必使贤者以为辅弼，是所谓“宜建侯”也。惟天地闭关未久，尤当无教逸欲，自耽安宁逸乐也，故戒之曰“不宁”也。

以此卦拟人事，则为阳刚之君子，与阴柔之小人始交，互异气质，彼此辄生争论，谓之“刚柔始交而难生”。何者？内卦我也，有雷厉之性，欲奋发而立志；外卦彼也，有水濡之性，挟下流之邪计，以妨我行为。凡我所欲振兴者，彼皆阻扰之，使不得成就，欲进不能进，欲往不能往，是谓之屯，故曰“勿用有攸往”。是以百事困难，恰如陷落水中，而不得自由，谓之“动乎险中”。虽然，气运变迁，困极必亨，犹冬去春来，冰冻自解，雷气发生，《屯》变为《解》，则屯难解散，而气运一新。故不宜急遽而图功，惟当固守以俟命，待气运一转，阳升阴降，自见君子当权，小人退位，是出屯而入亨也。当屯之时，要不忘此义也。

以此卦拟国家，则以下卦为人民，有暴雷上轰之象，蓄异谋，倡异论，欲以撼动上卦之政府；上卦为政府，下令如流水，以遏止下民之妄动，甚至以刑法制之。刑字古作

，从刀井，谓犯法之人，如陷入井中也，是下卦之《屯》也。政府虽有政刑，或不能遏止下民，而反为下民所困，以阻国运之进步，是上卦之《屯》也，谓之“刚柔始交而难生”也。初九者，下卦雷之主，即一阳之微动乎地下坎水之中。夫天下无事，英雄亦与凡庸无异，今当屯难之时，初爻一阳，以君子刚健之才，将奋发而有为，岂可晏然处之乎？在上位者，惟尊其位，重其禄，以礼遇之，使之济世之屯难，不然，欲以威力压之，却生不测之祸乱，争功者并起，人心愈形扰乱矣，谓之“天造草昧，宜建侯而不宁”也。“天造”，犹天运也；草者，谓人心之草乱而失其伦序；“昧”者，谓冥顽而不明，是即《屯》之象也。

《 易》有四难卦：《屯》、《坎》、《蹇》、《困》是也。《屯》者，“刚柔始交”，不知其意之所在，故生猜疑之念，为初酿困难之时。《坎》者，二人溺水之象，彼我共陷困难之中，惟能耐守当日之困，而得后来之亨也。《蹇》者，知彼构危险，乃止而不进，犹跛者之不得寸步也。《困》者，泽中无水之象，恰如盆栽之草木，滋润之气已竭。《屯》者难之始，《坎》者难之连及者，《蹇》者难之央，而《困》者难之终也。

通观此卦，初九，虽有建侯之才力，以当屯难之时，磐桓不进，居贞正之位，遇险而能自守其正。六二，居九五之应位，而为初九所挑，不能与九五共事，犹贞操之妇，拒强暴者之挑，经十年之久，始归其正应之夫。六三，为喻利之小人，乘此不明之时，欲独博其功。六四，应初九，亦比九五，因有所忌惮而不能共事，虽有“乘马班如”之屯难，终归正应初九之吉。九五，中正而并有位德，然介居二阴之间，不能沛雷雨之泽。上六，居屯难之终，无能为世。盖三与上无应之屯，二与四有应之屯也。六爻共动，当陷险之时，务要谨慎持重，经过屯难之气运，自有得志之日。曰“大亨贞”，大亨者，正屯难已解之时也。

《大象》曰：云雷，屯，君子以经纶。

不言雨而言云者，屯之时，云开于上，雷动于下，未能成雨；未能成雨，所以为屯。君子法此二气之动作妙用，以经纶政教之组织。“经纶”，犹言匡济也。经者机之纵丝，纵丝之不可易也，犹国家之大经，政教人心相合而不可紊也；纶者，机之横丝，犹取宇内各国之所长，见其时宜，而组织政体也。“经纶”者，即综理庶政之谓也。

【占】　问功名：内《震》外《坎》为《屯》，《震》为雷，《坎》为云，故曰“云雷”；《震》为出，《坎》为入，欲出而复入，故曰《屯》。又《震》为人，为上，《坎》为经，为法，故曰“君子以经纶”。是君子施经纶之才，而运当其屯也，宜待时而动。

○　问战征：勤兵而守曰屯。“云雷”者，蓄其势也；“经纶”者，怀其才也。然当其屯，宜守不宜进。

○　问营商：《彖》曰“刚柔始交而难生”，是必初次营商也。凡事始创者，多苦其难。经纶，治丝之事，知其业必在丝棉之类。

○　问家宅：《震》东方，《坎》北方，《震》动也，《坎》陷也，恐是宅东北方有动作，宜经理修治之。

○　问婚姻：雷阳气，云阴气，“刚柔始交而难生”，是初婚时，必不和洽，宜正人劝解之。

○　问六甲：生男，恐始产不免有险难。

Judgment

Legge: Difficulty indicates progress and success through firm correctness. Action should not be undertaken lightly, and it is wise to seek help.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Difficulty at the Beginning works supreme success, furthering through perseverance. Nothing should be undertaken. It furthers one to appoint helpers.

Blofeld: Difficulty followed by sublime success! Persistence in a righteous course brings reward; but do not seek some new goal (or destination); it is highly advantageous to consolidate the present position. [The fundamental idea of this hexagram is that of birth and growth amidst difficulty, as with a sprouting seed becoming a young plant and forcing its way through the earth. Our affairs, being still in their early stages, are vulnerable; we must not wander forth, but attend to them until they ripen; then, with proper care, the seed will bring forth a splendid tree. The upper trigram, a pit, suggests a need for caution; but, if we heed these omens, our success is assured.]

Liu: Difficulty in the Beginning: great success. It is of benefit to continue without planning to go someplace. One should find helpers.

Ritsema/Karcher: Sprouting. Spring Growing Harvesting Trial. No availingof possessing directed going. Harvesting: installing feudatories. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of beginning growth. It emphasizes that collecting potential in preparation for arduous labor is the adequate way to handle it...]

Shaughnessy: Hoarding: Prime receipt; beneficial to determine. Do not herewith have someplace to go; beneficial to establish a lord.

Cleary(1): In difficulty, creativity and development are effective if correct. Do not use. There is a place to go. It is beneficial to set up a ruler.

Cleary(2): Creativity is successful. It is beneficial to be correct. Do not make use of going somewhere. It is beneficial to set up lords.

Wu: Distress is primordial, pervasive, prosperous, and persevering. The subject should proceed with caution. It will be advantageous to establish marquisates.

The Image

Legge: The image of clouds and thunder forms Difficulty. The superior man, in accordance with this, adjusts his measures of government as in sorting the threads of the warp and woof.

Wilhelm/Baynes: Clouds and thunder: the image of Difficulty at the Beginning. Thus the superior man brings order out of confusion.

Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes lightning spewed forth by the clouds -difficulty prevails! The Superior Man busies himself setting things in order.

Liu: Clouds and thunder symbolize Difficulty at the Beginning. The superior man makes order out of disorder.

Ritsema/Karcher: Clouds, Thunder, Sprouting. A chun tzu uses the canons to coordinate. [Canons: standards, laws; regular, regulate; the Five Classics.

The ideogram: warp-threads in a loom.]

Cleary(1): Thunder in the clouds is held back; the superior person orders and arranges.

Cleary(2): Clouds and thunder – Difficulty. Thereby leaders organize.

Wu: Clouds and thunder form hexagram Distress. Thus the jun zi plans and organizes.

COMMENTARY

Confucius/Legge: Difficulty is experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse, but correct action succeeds in the face of danger. By the action of thunder and rain, which are the attributes of the lower and upper trigrams, all between Heaven and Earth is filled up. But the conditions of the time are irregular and obscure. Authority should be delegated, but the feeling that rest and peace have been secured should not be indulged in even then.

Legge: The written character for Difficulty is pictorial, and shows a plant struggling with difficulty as it rises above the surface of the earth. This initial difficulty is a metaphor for how struggle is the condition of a state which is emerging from disorder after a revolution. The author saw his social and political world in great disorder and difficult to reform, yet he had faith in himself and the

destiny of his House. Let there be prudence and caution, with unswerving adherence to the right. Let the government of the different states be entrusted to

good and able men -- then all will be well. According to the arrangement of the eight trigrams, Heaven and Earth are the parents of the other six, who are their children. The first-born son is the lower trigram of Movement, and the second-born son is the upper trigram of Peril.

McClatchie renders here: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering." The power to move in the lower trigram is likely to produce great effects; to do this in perilous and difficult circumstances (symbolized by the upper trigram) requires firmness and correctness. Good princes throughout the realm will help to remedy the political and social disorder of the times, but the supreme ruler should not trust his subordinates to the point of relaxing his vigilance. The lower trigram represents thunder, the upper represents rain clouds.

The hexagram therefore places us in the atmosphere of a thunderstorm -- a metaphor for the situation of a political state in difficulty. When the thunder has pealed, and the clouds have discharged their burden of rain, the atmosphere is cleared and there is a feeling of relief.

Anthony: This hexagram means that we have not yet found the correct path.

It also means confusion: too many possibilities. Nothing is clear. This lack of clarity is the “hindrance” referred to in the first line of the hexagram. In the second line, the remedies that come forth are inappropriate. In the first stages of dealing with a problem, we are tempted to grasp at solutions, whereas we should wait until the proper actions become clear.

NOTES AND PARAPHRASES

Judgment: Under the conditions of Difficulty it is best to mark time while seeking assistance. The superior man uses careful analysis to separate order from confusion. Wilhelm’s title for this hexagram is Difficulty at the Beginning. I prefer Difficulty, because it is a situation encountered at any phase of the Work, not just the beginning. Difficulty is experienced because confusion and multiplicity prevail

during the initial phase of any creative activity -- thoughts and feelings proliferate and threaten to overwhelm the mind with infinite complexity. The only way to proceed under such circumstances is to carefully sort out the components of the situation and arrange them in categories and in order of importance. To "sort the threads of the warp and woof" is to weave a tangled mess into a tapestry.

The Orderly Sequence of the Hexagrams gives us an image of what takes place under the hexagram of Difficulty: When there were Heaven and Earth, then afterwards all things were produced. What fills up the space between Heaven and Earth are those individual things. Hence the Dynamic and Magnetic are followed by Difficulty. Difficulty means filling up. "Filling up," is rendered as "fullness" in some translations. This is the exact meaning of the gnostic term: "Pleroma," or "Fullness" which Jung correlates with the Collective Unconscious or Objective Psyche. These are interior dimensions from which emanate the archetypal energies which we experience as instinctual drives and emotional complexes. This is the "hyperspace" from which the Self, via the oracle, responds to our queries and directs the Work. Thus we see that the third hexagram, following the creation of the cosmic pair of opposites in the first two figures, represents a dialectical progression. Lao Tse, who wrote the Tao Te Ching some six-hundred years after the I Ching was committed to writing, describes this unfolding process: Out of Tao, One is born; Out of One, Two; Out of Two, Three; Out of Three, the created universe. The created universe carries the yin at its back and the yang in front;

Through the union of their pervading principles it reaches harmony. The identical idea is found in many traditions, giving it the status of an archetype within human consciousness. It is not necessary to be familiar with the technical terminology of Kabbalah to recognize that the same idea is being discussed in the following passage: In Chokmah and Binah we have the archetypal Positive and Negative; the primordial Maleness and Femaleness, established while "countenance beheld not countenance" and manifestation was incipient

... It is between these two polarizing aspects of manifestation -- the

Supernal Father and the Supernal Mother -- that the web of life is woven; souls going back and forth between them like a weaver's shuttle. In our individual lives, in our physiological rhythms, and in the history of the rise and fall of nations, we observe the same rhythmic periodicity.

D. Fortune -- The Mystical Qabalah This idea has been stated very simply:

All things are a single form which has divided and multiplied in time and space.

W.B. Yeats -- A Vision Is not the sky a father and the earth a mother, and are not all living things with feet or wings or roots their children? -- Black Elk And also with poetic complexity: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was a formless void, there was darkness over the deep, and God's spirit hovered over the water ... God said, "Let the waters teem with living creatures, and let birds fly above the earth within the vault of heaven." And so it was ... God blessed them, saying, "Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the waters of the seas; and let the birds multiply upon the earth.

Genesis There are some profound ideas in these images about the structure of human consciousness and the contents of the unconscious psyche. The basic idea

is that of Emanation -- the creation of physical reality from a supreme principle in ordered hierarchies of increasing complexity. This concept is essential for a full understanding of the Work. The involution of man was his descent from the sphere of the spirit, developing bodies of a mental, emotional and then physical nature until he manifested upon this planet. His evolution is to civilize this planet and to develop mastery of the physical, emotional and mental planes and relink himself in unity with God once more, thus completing the cycle. He came from God as an inexperienced Spark of Divine Fire and returns to Him, with all the experience of manifestation, as a Lord of Humanity.

Gareth Knight -- The Work of a Modern Occult Fraternity In many systems of thought, the proliferation of forces is seen in sexual

terms -- the cosmic parents produce entities in male and female pairs (gnostic syzygies), which in turn produce offspring. Hence, Confucius says: "Difficulty is experienced as Heaven and Earth begin their intercourse." That this has an explicit sexual connotation is confirmed by McClatchie: "The figure of Difficulty represents the hard and the soft beginning to have sexual intercourse, and bringing forth with suffering." Thus we see that the correct and incorrect correlation ("intercourse") of dynamic (male) and magnetic (female) lines in any I Ching hexagram symbolizes the favorable (life-enhancing) or unfavorable (lifenegating) combinations of thought and feeling within the psyche.

SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION

The sexual intercourse of Heaven and Earth is also described in

hexagram number eleven, Harmony. In terms of these sexual metaphors, what does the term "adultery" imply in regard to the Work? See hexagram number forty-four, Temptation, for further insight on this theme.