大壯 → 升
Hexagram 34: Great Power → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 4).
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 4
九四 貞吉。悔亡。藩決不羸。壯于大輿之輹。
Nine in the fourth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. The hedge opens; there is no entanglement. Power depends upon the axle of a big cart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
數窮廓落，困於歷室，往登玉堂，與堯侑食。
Fortune exhausted, fallen and desolate; trapped in a wretched chamber. He goes up and enters the Jade Hall; he dines alongside Yao himself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder above heaven traces a trajectory from utter desolation to imperial glory. Fortune is exhausted, the dwelling dilapidated and empty — the nadir of worldly circumstance. Then the verse pivots dramatically: one ascends the Jade Hall and dines alongside Emperor Yao himself. This is the archetype of reversal from poverty to honor, recalling figures like Fu Yue, who was found building walls and raised to chief minister, or Baili Xi, ransomed from slavery for five ram skins. From Great Power to Pushing Upward, wood grows slowly within the earth in Sheng: accumulating small gains into great height. The transformation embodies patient ascent — the Jade Hall is not stormed but climbed, step by step, from the very bottom.
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