震 → 剝
Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 震來虩虩。後笑言啞啞。吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Shock comes–oh, oh! Then follow laughing words–ha, ha! Good fortune.
Line 4
九四 震遂泥。
Nine in the fourth place means: Shock is mired.
Line 6
上六 震索索。視矍矍。征凶。震不于其躬。于其鄰。无咎。婚媾有言。
Six at the top means: Shock brings ruin and terrified gazing around. Going ahead brings misfortune. If it has not yet touched one's own body But has reached one's neighbor first, There is no blame. One's comrades have something to talk about.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
喜來如雲，嘉福盈門。眾才君子，舉家蒙懽。
Joy arrives like gathering clouds; blessed fortune fills the gate. Worthy gentlemen of talent; the whole household basks in delight.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder doubled meets mountain over earth: shock transforms into the slow stripping of Splitting Apart. Yet the verse is entirely auspicious — joy arrives like clouds, blessings fill the gate. Talented gentlemen gather, and the whole household shares in delight. The paradox is deliberate: Splitting Apart, the hexagram of erosion, here produces abundance. Mountain resting on earth, the upper erodes toward the lower, redistributing what was concentrated above. From The Arousing to Splitting Apart, the shock that dislodges the mountain sends its wealth cascading downward. What looks like dissolution from above is generosity when viewed from below. The household that receives this avalanche of blessings benefits precisely from the splitting apart of what was hoarded on high.
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