Line 3 of
Hexagram 33: 遯
“Retiring” — King Wen #33 · 九三
Line 3 九三
系遁，有疾厲；畜臣妾，吉。
The third NINE, undivided, shows one retiring but bound,--to his distress and peril. (If he were to deal with his binders as in) nourishing a servant or concubine, it would be fortunate for him.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 3 changing turns hexagram 33 into䷋ Hexagram 12: 否 — “Obstruction”Read line 3 of hexagram 12 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 3 of hexagram 33 is a strong (yang) line occupying the third line, at the threshold between the lower and upper trigrams — in the received text a classic place of unease. The classical line statement — 系遁，有疾厲；畜臣妾，吉。 — is what commentators from the Ten Wings onward have read as the figure's own commentary on this one position. James Legge's 1882 rendering, quoted above, keeps the imagery of the original: each line of a hexagram is read as a stage of the same picture, and this page collects the source text for that stage. If you treat the line as moving in the traditional way, flipping it alone produces the changed hexagram linked above; readers have long used that pair of figures to compare a situation as given with the same situation one line different. As always with classical divination texts, this is presented for cultural and reference interest — the text itself carries no prediction about any modern reader's situation.
Questions About Hexagram 33 Line 3
What does line 3 of hexagram 33 say?
The received text reads: 系遁，有疾厲；畜臣妾，吉。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The third NINE, undivided, shows one retiring but bound,--to his distress and peril. (If he were to deal with his binders as in) nourishing a servant or concubine, it would be fortunate for him.”
Which hexagram does line 3 change hexagram 33 into?
Changing only line 3 of hexagram 33 (遯, “Retiring”) gives hexagram 12 — 否 (pǐ, “Obstruction”). This is the classical way a changed hexagram is derived from moving lines.
Are line pages available for every hexagram?
Yes. Every one of the 64 hexagrams now has six line pages — one per line from the bottom line up to the top line — each with the classical Chinese text, Legge's 1882 translation, and the changed hexagram that line produces when it moves.
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1882), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and reference — not financial, medical, or life advice.