震 → 大過
Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 5).
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 2
六二 震來厲。億喪貝。躋于九陵。勿逐。七日得。
Six in the second place means: Shock comes bringing danger. A hundred thousand times You lose your treasures And must climb the nine hills. Do not go in pursuit of them. After seven days you will get them back again.
Line 3
六三 震蘇蘇。震行无眚。
Six in the third place means: Shock comes and makes one distraught. If shock spurs to action One remains free of misfortune.
Line 5
六五 震往來厲。意无喪有事。
Six in the fifth place means: Shock goes hither and thither. Danger. However, nothing at all is lost. Yet there are things to be done.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
年衰歲暮，精魂遊去。形容消枯，喪子恩呼。
Years declining, life at its dusk; essence and spirit wander away. Form and countenance wither and dry; mourning a lost child with desperate cries.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder doubled meets lake over wind: shock pushed to the breaking point of Great Exceeding. The year declines toward its end, the vital spirit wanders away. The body dries and withers; mourning a lost child, one cries out in anguish. This verse layers two kinds of extremity — the old year dying and a parent outliving a child, perhaps the cruelest reversal of natural order. The spirit departs before the body fully fails, leaving a husk that can only cry. From The Arousing to Great Exceeding, lake submerging wood, the ridgepole sags under unbearable weight. Thunder's energy, instead of renewing, has pushed past all sustainable limits. The verse embodies the hexagram's core warning: when the extraordinary becomes excessive, even grief exceeds the capacity to bear it.
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