Hexagram 3 — Sprouting
King Wen #3 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
A hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order.
What Hexagram 3 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 3 places thunder (震) beneath water (坎) — movement breaking out of stillness below, water finding its way through hard gaps above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Sprouting”: a hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
雲雷，屯；君子以經綸。
(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 I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Clouds and thunder: hard beginnings. The wise put order into the tangle, strand by strand.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 3 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Sprouting describes a hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: movement breaking out of stillness, held inside a larger setting of water finding its way through hard gaps. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Sprouting about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: a hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 3
What does 屯 (zhūn) mean?
Hexagram 3 of the I Ching is named 屯 (zhūn), usually rendered "Sprouting" in English editions. Its figure is built from thunder (震) below and water (坎) above — movement breaking out of stillness beneath water finding its way through hard gaps.
Is hexagram 3 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 3 is warm: it contains 2 occurrences of 吉 (good fortune), 1 of 凶 (misfortune). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 3 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Sprouting points to a hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order. The figure pairs thunder (震) beneath water (坎) — movement breaking out of stillness meeting water finding its way through hard gaps — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 3 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Sprouting through the figure itself: thunder (震) below, water (坎) above — movement breaking out of stillness held inside water finding its way through hard gaps. The plain reading: A hard beginning: new growth struggling through obstacles. Gather helpers and put things in order. The text carries 2 mentions of 吉 (good fortune) and 1 of 凶 (misfortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 3 mean?
A cast of hexagram 3 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 3 gives hexagram 50, 鼎 (Holding). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 3 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 3 gives hexagram 50 — 鼎 (Holding). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 4 — 蒙 (Enveloping). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 23 — 剝 (Stripping).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
元亨，利貞；勿用有攸往，利建侯。
Zhun (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 I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
磐桓；利居貞，利建侯。
The first NINE, 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.
屯如，邅如，乘馬班如。匪寇婚媾。女子貞不字，十年乃字。
The second SIX, 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.
即鹿無虞，惟入于林中，君子幾，不如舍，往吝。
The third SIX, 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.
乘馬班如，求婚媾，往吉，無不利。
The fourth SIX, 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.
屯其膏，小貞吉，大貞凶。
The fifth NINE, 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.
乘馬班如，泣血漣如。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows (its subject) with the horses of his chariot obliged to retreat, and weeping tears of blood in streams.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.