Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 51: The Arousing Thunder

The Army
Earth / Water
The Arousing Thunder
Thunder / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4).

Line 1

初六 師出以律。否臧凶。

shīthe militia
chūsets out
by
code
if not
zāngright
xiōngunfortunate

Six at the beginning means: An army must set forth in proper order. If the order is not good, misfortune threatens.

Line 2

九二 在師中吉。无咎。王三錫命。

zàiat
shīthe militia
zhōngthe center
promising
nothing
jiùblame
wángthe sovereign
sānthree times
grants
mìngdecrees

Nine in the second place means: In the midst of the army. Good fortune. No blame. The king bestows a triple decoration.

Line 4

六四 師左次。无咎。

shīthe militia's
zuǒin a fallback
encampment
no
jiùblame

Six in the fourth place means: The army retreats. No blame.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramEarth ThunderThe Receptive → The Arousing
Lower TrigramWater ThunderThe Deep → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

鴻飛在陸,公出不復。仲氏任止,伯氏客宿。

The wild goose flies over land; the lord departs and does not return. The second brother stays at his post; the eldest brother lodges abroad.

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

Commentary

Water hidden within the earth dispatches its forces, and a wild goose alights upon the dry land as a lord departs and does not return. The second brother settles in place while the eldest becomes a sojourner. The 'goose on dry land' echoes the Yijing's Gradual Development hexagram — a bird far from water, exposed and vulnerable. The verse distributes the brothers' fates unevenly: one stays rooted, the other is cast into permanent exile. From The Army to The Arousing, doubled thunder shakes the foundations. The sudden shock separates those who should remain together — the army's cohesion shatters into individual fates, each brother absorbing a different tremor of the upheaval.

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