蠱 → 震
Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed → Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 幹父之蠱。有子。考无咎。厲終吉。
Six in the beginning means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. If there is a son, No blame rests upon the departed father. Danger. In the end good fortune.
Line 2
九二 幹母之蠱。不可貞。
Nine in the second place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the mother. One must not be too persevering.
Line 3
九三 幹父之蠱。小有悔。无大咎。
Nine in the third place means: Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. There will be a little remorse. No great blame.
Line 4
六四 裕父之蠱。往見吝。
Six in the fourth place means: Tolerating what has been spoiled by the father. In continuing one sees humiliation.
Line 6
上九 不事王侯。高尚其事。
Nine at the top means: He does not serve kings and princes, Sets himself higher goals.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
德惠孔明，雖衰復章，保其室堂。
Virtue and kindness shine brightly; though diminished, they blaze again -- the household and hall are preserved.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind beneath the mountain preserves virtue through decline, and the transformation erupts as doubled thunder — the Arousing shock that demands self-examination. Virtue and benevolence shine brilliantly; though declining, they blaze forth again, preserving the house and hall. The verse is remarkably compressed: moral clarity endures through adversity. The phrase 'though declining, it shines again' captures the precise dynamic of resilience — not avoiding decline but blazing through it. From Work on the Decayed to the Arousing, the inner shock of self-awareness revives what was fading. Thunder upon thunder: the first shock startles, the second proves one has learned. Virtue that has survived its own eclipse radiates with doubled intensity.
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