震 → 需
Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder → Hexagram 5: Waiting
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5).
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 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
刖根枯株，不生肌膚。病在於心，日以燋枯。
Roots severed, the dead stump grows no flesh or skin. The illness lies in the heart; day by day it withers and dries.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder doubled transforms into water over heaven: from shock to patient waiting. A tree stump with severed roots, no new bark can grow. The illness lies in the heart, and day by day it withers. The verse describes radical severance — not a branch pruned but roots cut entirely — followed by slow internal decay. The sickness is not on the surface but at the core, and no external remedy suffices. From The Arousing to Waiting, the transformation reframes urgency into enforced patience. Clouds gather above heaven but the rain has not yet fallen. When the damage is this deep, thunder's impulse to act immediately only accelerates the drying out. Healing, if it comes, requires endurance rather than force.
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