Is line 3 of Troops in its correct place?

It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.

Hexagram 7, line 3

六三Line 3 of Troops

Six in the third place · 師 shī

carting corpsesmisfortuneno achievement

爻辭 The line text

師或輿尸，凶。

The third line, divided, shows how the host may, possibly, have many inefficient leaders. There will be evil.

Its symbolism

師或輿尸，大无功也。

'The host with the possibility of its having many idle leaders:'—great will be its want of success.

In plain words

'The army perhaps carts corpses: misfortune.' Line three is yin in a yang place at the top of Kan, weak and out of position, pushing itself forward with the eagerness of a yang place and none of the strength. It has no correspondent above (line six is also yin), so no one answers it. The image is a defeat so complete that the wagons carry the dead home; some commentators also read 輿屍 as 'many taking command', the army with several masters, which comes to the same disaster. The small Image says the result is 'great lack of achievement' (大無功也). Zhu Xi reads it as the unfit person given a command, or the command divided — either way the structure of a single centre, which line two embodies, has been broken.

If this line is changing

Do not take or share command of something you lack the strength to carry; a venture with the wrong leader, or several leaders, ends with nothing to show for it.

Where the line stands

A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin line that moves when cast.
It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
It belongs to the lower trigram 坎 Kan (the Abysmal) (water).
It has no correspondence (無應) with line 6: both lines are yin, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.

之卦 When this line moves

師 Troops becomes ䷭ 46 升 Ascending

Wood growing within the earth: ascending. Supreme success; see the great man; a march to the south brings good fortune — growth by steady, unforced effort.

What it becomes46 · 升 Ascendingshēng

The six lines of 師 Troops

Read 師 Troops for a question about

Love and relationships Work and career A yes-or-no decision

Questions about this line

What does Six in the third place of hexagram 7, Troops, mean?: 'The army perhaps carts corpses: misfortune.' Line three is yin in a yang place at the top of Kan, weak and out of position, pushing itself forward with the eagerness of a yang place and none of the strength. It has no correspondent above (line six is also yin), so no one answers it. The image is a defeat so complete that the wagons carry the dead home; some commentators also read 輿屍 as 'many taking command', the army with several masters, which comes to the same disaster. The small Image says the result is 'great lack of achievement' (大無功也). Zhu Xi reads it as the unfit person given a command, or the command divided — either way the structure of a single centre, which line two embodies, has been broken.
What does hexagram 7 become when line 3 changes?: Troops becomes hexagram 46, 升 Ascending: Wood growing within the earth: ascending. Supreme success; see the great man; a march to the south brings good fortune — growth by steady, unforced effort.
Is line 3 of Troops in its correct place?: It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.

Cast a reading Hexagram 7 in full Changing lines explained

Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).