震 → 蹇
Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder → Hexagram 39: Obstruction
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 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 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 4
九四 震遂泥。
Nine in the fourth place means: Shock is mired.
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
蟻封戶穴，大雨將集。鵲起數鳴，牝雞嘆室。相薨雄父，未到在道。
Ants seal their nest-holes; a great rain is about to gather. The magpie stirs and cries out; the hen sighs within the house. The lord has perished; the elder father has not yet arrived, still on the road.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder doubled meets water over mountain: shock obstructed into the trials of difficulty. Ants seal their holes as heavy rain gathers. Magpies rise and cry repeatedly; the hen sighs within the house. The lord has died on the road, not yet arrived home. The verse reads natural omens with precision: ants blocking their nests signal approaching storms, and magpies calling urgently announce arrivals or departures. The hen sighing within the chamber echoes the classical warning against 'the hen crowing at dawn' — feminine anxiety or domestic disorder. The master's death en route completes the picture of interrupted return. From The Arousing to Obstruction, water upon mountain, every path is blocked. The omens align but the one who should arrive never does.
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