未濟 → 震
Hexagram 64: Before Completion → Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
Line 1
初六 濡其尾。吝。
Six at the beginning means: He gets his tail in the water. Humiliating.
Line 2
九二 曳其輪。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: He brakes his wheels. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 6
上九 有孚于飲酒。无咎。濡其首。有孚失是。
Nine at the top means: There is drinking of wine In genuine confidence. No blame. But if one wets his head, He loses it, in truth.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
雹梅零蒂,心思憒憒,亂我靈氣。
Hail batters the plum blossoms, petals fall from their stems; mind and thought are thrown into turmoil; my spirit is thrown into disarray.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above water, and hail shatters the plum blossoms. Petals and stems are stripped away; the mind is thrown into turmoil, and one's vital spirit is disordered. The image is of sudden, brutal damage to something delicate — hailstones destroying spring blooms at their most vulnerable moment. From Before Completion to the Arousing, fire-over-water transforms into doubled thunder. The Arousing shakes the world and then shakes it again; the gentleman responds with fear and self-examination. The hail that destroys the plum tree is Thunder's destructive face — the shock that arrives without warning and leaves devastation. Yet Thunder also brings clarity through fear: the one whose spirit is disordered by the blow may find, in the aftermath, a sharper sense of what matters.
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