大壯 → 晉
Hexagram 34: Great Power → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 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
鄭國讒多，數被楚憂，商人愁苦，民困無聊。
In the state of Zheng, slander abounds; repeatedly they suffer the sorrows of Chu. The merchants grieve in bitterness; the people are exhausted and without relief.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above heaven illuminates the plight of Zheng, a small state caught between great powers. Zheng's court was plagued by slander and intrigue, leaving it perpetually vulnerable to Chu's aggression from the south. Merchants suffered, the people were exhausted and destitute. Zheng's geographical curse — wedged between Jin and Chu — meant that internal discord immediately invited external attack. From Great Power to Progress, fire rises above the earth in Jin, the image of brightness emerging. The transformation is aspirational but undercut by the verse's reality: the light that should announce progress instead exposes a state too fractured to advance. When power is consumed by internal slander, the dawn arrives only to reveal the damage more clearly.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store