大壯 → 姤
Hexagram 34: Great Power → Hexagram 44: Coming to Meet
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
婚禮不明，男女失常，行露反言，出爭我訟。
The wedding rites lack propriety; man and woman transgress what is proper. The Dew on the Path speaks in reversal; going out, they contend and bring us to litigation.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above heaven disrupts the marriage rites: the ceremony lacks clarity, the proper roles of man and woman are inverted. The verse then invokes the Shijing ode 'Xing Lu' (Treading on Dew), where a woman refuses an improper suitor — 'Though you force me to trial, I will not follow you.' Here the allusion is reversed: the marriage proceeds despite violated propriety, and from it come only quarrels and lawsuits. From Great Power to Coming to Meet, wind moves beneath heaven in Gou, the unexpected encounter. Gou warns of yin infiltrating yang from below — an unsanctioned union that looks incidental but corrupts from within. Power that ignores ritual propriety in its most intimate bonds breeds the very contention it should prevent.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store