大壯 → 小畜
Hexagram 34: Great Power → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
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.
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
秦失嘉居，河伯為怪，還其御璧，神怒不祐，織組无文，燒香弗芬。
Qin loses its fine dwelling; the River Lord works mischief. The jade disc is returned; the spirits rage and grant no favor. The weave has no pattern; the incense burning yields no fragrance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over heaven meets wind above heaven in the target hexagram, yet the divine refuses to cooperate. Qin loses its auspicious dwelling, and the Earl of the River stirs calamity. The returned jade disc — likely an offering rejected by the spirits — signals that heaven withdraws its favor. Incense burned brings no fragrance, woven fabric shows no pattern: every ritual gesture falls flat. The verse may allude to Qin's troubled relationship with the Chenbao cult or to broader failures of state sacrifice when virtue is absent. From Great Power to Small Taming, the wind that should gently accumulate cultural refinement instead scatters the offerings. Power without spiritual sincerity cannot be stored or cultivated; it simply dissipates, leaving the ritualist empty-handed.
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