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I Ching hexagram 3 ☵☳ Difficulty at the Beginning

I Ching hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, is water above, thunder below. In brief: a hard start; growth held back by early chaos. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1 and 5 and its broken lines in 2, 3, 4 and 6.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚋⚋⚋⚊⚋ 100010 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Water over Thunder Kan ☵ / Zhen ☳
Every line changed
№ 50 The Cauldron
In Legge, 1882
p. 62 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 50, The Cauldron, 4, Youthful Folly and 23, Splitting Apart.

Also with Water above: 5, Waiting, 8, Holding Together and 29, The Abysmal.

Also with Thunder below: 17, Following, 21, Biting Through and 24, Return.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning

Upper trigram

☵

Water (Kan) above

Danger and depth.

FamilyMiddle son
ElementWater

Lower trigram

☳

Thunder (Zhen) below

Arousal and shock.

FamilyEldest son
ElementWood

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 3

The Judgement

The confusion of a new beginning. Growth is happening but everything is tangled; progress comes from getting help and putting basic order in place before pushing ahead.

The Image

Water above thunder: a storm cloud gathering over new growth. The lesson is to sort things out — separate the threads, build structure — while the situation is still forming.

A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →

Primary source

Hexagram 3 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“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

  1. Line 1 · bottom 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. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. 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.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, divided, shows (its subject) with the horses of his chariot obliged to retreat, and weeping tears of blood in streams.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 62 — read the original text. Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.

Difficulty at the Beginning for a decision

Do not force a big move while the situation is still chaotic. Line up allies, clarify roles and take small steps. The difficulty belongs to the start and eases once the pieces are arranged.

I Ching 3 in love and relationships

Early stages that feel awkward or overwhelming. The advice is patience and outside support rather than giving up because the beginning is messy.

Hexagram 3 at work

A launch, a new job or a new team in its first chaotic phase. Build simple systems, ask for help and resist taking on more before the basics work.

The six lines of hexagram 3

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yin yin yin yang yin — what each position means.

Hexagram 3: Water over Thunder
Hexagram 3, Difficulty at the Beginning, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 42Line 2 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 53Line 3 · yin, brokenout of placeno answer from 64Line 4 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 15Line 5 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 26Line 6 · yin, brokenin its placeno answer from 3LowerZhenThunderUpperKanWaterKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

2 yang and 4 yin lines. Five of the six stand in their proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 2–5 answer.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Thunder below — arousal and shock — is the private, inner side of hexagram 3.

Water above — danger and depth — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Water above generates Wood below, so the movement runs downward — the outer situation is feeding the inner one. Support arrives from outside rather than being generated within.

Read as a family

The middle son sits above and the eldest son below. Two brothers, the younger one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, with the junior one taking the lead.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 3

Hexagram 23, Splitting Apart

Nuclear hexagram

23 · Splitting Apart

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Kun (Earth) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Gen (Mountain) as the upper.

Hexagram 50, The Cauldron

Opposite hexagram

50 · The Cauldron

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Water over Thunder becomes Fire over Wind.

Hexagram 4, Youthful Folly

Inverse hexagram

4 · Youthful Folly

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Water over Thunder becomes Mountain over Water.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Water above, Thunder below.

Water over Thunder: danger and depth meeting arousal and shock.

← 2 · All 64 · 4 →

1 The Creative 2 The Receptive 4 Youthful Folly 5 Waiting 6 Conflict 7 The Army 8 Holding Together

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 62

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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