大壯 → 否
Hexagram 34: Great Power → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 壯于趾。征凶有孚。
Nine at the beginning means: Power in the toes. Continuing brings misfortune. This is certainly true.
Line 2
九二 貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 小人用壯。君子用罔。貞厲。羝羊觸藩。羸其角。
Nine in the third place means: The inferior man works through power. The superior man does not act thus. To continue is dangerous. A goat butts against a hedge And gets its horns entangled.
Line 5
六五 喪羊于易。无悔。
Six in the fifth place means: Loses the goat with ease. No remorse.
Line 6
上六 羝羊觸藩。不能退。不能遂。无攸利。艱則吉。
Six at the top means: A goat butts against a hedge. It cannot go backward, it cannot go forward. Nothing serves to further. If one notes the difficulty, this brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三痴六狂，欲之平鄉，迷惑失道，不知昏明。
Three fools and six madmen seek the level country. Bewildered, they lose the way; they cannot tell dusk from dawn.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over heaven drives three fools and six madmen toward a land of peace they cannot find. They seek the level plain but lose their way, unable to distinguish dusk from dawn. The numbers three and six suggest a critical mass of incompetence — not a single misguided soul but a whole cohort stumbling in collective delusion. From Great Power to Standstill, heaven and earth refuse to communicate. In Pi, heaven rises and earth sinks, each retreating into isolation. Power misdirected by confusion does not merely fail; it freezes into total obstruction. The road to the level country exists, but those who cannot tell light from dark will never find it, and their combined vigor only deepens the impasse.
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