震 → 益
Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder → Hexagram 42: Increase
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
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.
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
災䖝為賊，害我稼穡。盡禾殫麥，秋无所得。
Plague insects turn to thieves; they devour my crops and grain. Millet consumed, wheat exhausted; in autumn there is nothing to reap.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder doubled meets wind over thunder: shock magnified into Increase — yet here the increase is destructive. Pest insects become thieves, ruining my grain and crops. Millet and wheat are consumed entirely; by autumn there is nothing to harvest. The verse describes agricultural devastation by plague, where the 'increase' is that of vermin rather than virtue. Wind and thunder together, the image of Increase, should mean that 'seeing good one moves toward it, having faults one corrects them.' But when what multiplies is pestilence rather than wisdom, Increase becomes its own curse. From The Arousing to Increase, the transformation warns that unchecked proliferation without moral direction produces only ruin. The autumn arrives empty-handed.
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