頤 → 大壯
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 34: Great Power
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 2
六二 顛頤。拂經于丘。頤征凶。
Six in the second place means: Turning to the summit for nourishment, Deviating from the path To seek nourishment from the hill. Continuing to do this brings misfortune.
Line 3
六三 拂頤。貞凶。十年勿用。无攸利。
Six in the third place means: Turning away from nourishment. Perseverance brings misfortune. Do not act thus for ten years. Nothing serves to further.
Line 4
六四 顛頤。吉。虎視眈眈。其欲逐逐。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Turning to the summit For provision of nourishment Brings good fortune. Spying about with sharp eyes Like a tiger with insatiable craving. No blame.
Line 6
上九 由頤。厲吉。利涉大川。
Nine at the top means: The source of nourishment. Awareness of danger brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
江河淮海，盈溢為害。邑被其瀨，年困無歲。
Yangtze, Yellow River, Huai, and sea; brimming over, they bring calamity. The town is inundated by rapids; the year is blighted, no harvest to count.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder yields to thunder in heaven — Great Power, raw yang strength unrestrained. Rivers, the Huai, and the sea overflow and become a disaster. Towns are inundated by the rapids, and the year's harvest is ruined beyond recovery. Where verse 27-2 praised these same rivers as heaven's treasury, here they turn catastrophic — the identical waters that nourish now destroy. From Nourishment to Great Power, the transformation overwhelms: thunder above heaven is strength beyond measure, and water that should sustain life becomes a weapon of annihilation when power exceeds its channels. Great Power warns the gentleman not to tread outside propriety; the flood is what happens when nourishment breaks its banks.
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