中孚 → 大壯
Hexagram 61: Inner Truth → Hexagram 34: Great Power
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 3
六三 得敵。或鼓或罷。或泣或歌。
Six in the third place means: He finds a comrade. Now he beats the drum, now he stops. Now he sobs, now he sings.
Line 4
六四 月幾望。馬匹亡。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The moon nearly at the full. The team horse goes astray. No blame.
Line 5
九五 有孚攣如。无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: He possesses truth, which links together. No blame.
Line 6
上九 翰音登于天。貞凶。
Nine at the top means: Cockcrow penetrating to heaven. Perseverance brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
畫龍頭頸，文章未成。甘言美語，說辭無名。
Painting the dragon's head and neck; the pattern remains unfinished. Sweet words and fine phrases; eloquent speech without substance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind stirs above the lake, but only the dragon's head and neck are sketched — the composition remains unfinished. Sweet words and fine rhetoric amount to nothing; eloquent speeches lack substance. The verse invokes the idiom of 'painting the dragon without dotting the eye' (畫龍點睛), here extended further: even the body is incomplete, let alone the animating detail. From Inner Truth to Great Power, sincerity should yield to thunder resounding above heaven — raw force that cannot be contained. Yet the verse shows the opposite: all preamble and no power. The dragon has no torso, no claws, no scales. Great Power requires the whole body of the dragon, not just its portrait. Eloquence without follow-through is decoration without force.
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