大壯

Hexagram 55: Abundance → Hexagram 34: Great Power

Abundance
Thunder / Fire
大壯
Great Power
Thunder / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).

Line 2

六二 豐其蔀。日中見斗。往得疑疾。有孚發若。吉。

fēngso abundant
are one's
woven screens
the day
zhōngat mid-
jiànone may see
dǒuthe bushel constellation
wǎnggoing ahead
finds
doubt
and anxiety
yǒuto be
true
and manifest
ruòthis
is promising

Six in the second place means: The curtain is of such fullness That the polestars can be seen at noon. Through going one meets with mistrust and hate. If one rouses him through truth, Good fortune comes.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramThunder Thunder
Lower TrigramFire HeavenThe Clinging → The Creative

Yilin Verse

刲羊不當,女執空筐。兔跛鹿踦,緣山墜墮。

Slaughtering the sheep, missing the mark; the woman holds an empty basket. The hare limps, the deer stumbles; along the mountain ridge they tumble and fall.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder and fire converge in Abundance, yet every action miscarries. The sheep is slaughtered improperly; the woman holds an empty basket. The rabbit limps, the deer stumbles; they tumble from the mountainside. Nothing works as intended — the sacrifice fails, the gathering yields nothing, and even sure-footed mountain creatures lose their balance. The 'empty basket' (空筐) signals effort without result, while the animals' falls suggest that brute strength applied clumsily only accelerates disaster. From Abundance to Great Power, thunder roars above heaven: the verse is a cautionary mirror for Great Power, which warns against using force without propriety. The ram that butts the hedge gets its horns entangled — power misapplied produces not triumph but humiliating collapse.

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