Hexagram 34 as yes or no
Hexagram 34 Great Vigor as a yes-or-no answer
Da Zhuang answers a 'should I' question with 'you can — the question is whether you should do it this way'. The hexagram confirms that you have the strength and the momentum: four yang lines, thunder over heaven. What it withholds is permission to use that strength without restraint. The Judgment's only word is 'steadiness is favourable', and the ram at the fence appears twice in six lines, so the hexagram's yes is a yes to a correct, measured advance and a no to a forced one.
The changing line decides which. Line one is a plain no — to advance on first enthusiasm is misfortune. Line two is yes, from a steady centre. Line three is no: force will get you caught. Line four is the clearest yes in the hexagram, the fence opening and the cart moving. In the upper trigram the yin lines speak for what resists you: five says let the contest go and you will not regret it, six says you are already stuck and the only good move is to admit it.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder above heaven: great strength on the move. Favourable to persevere correctly — real power stays within the bounds of propriety; the ram that butts the hedge gets stuck.
You have the strength; use it with restraint and legitimacy, or it turns against you.
The judgment
大壯：利貞。Tâ Kwang indicates that (under the conditions which it symbolises) it will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 大壯 Great Vigor has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningstrength in the toes · charging ahead · certain exhaustion
- 九二Nine in the second placecentred strength · steadiness · the mean
- 九三Nine in the third placethe ram and the fence · brute force · the net of restraint
- 九四Nine in the fourth placethe fence gives way · axle of the great cart · strength that carries
- 六五Six in the fifth placelosing the ram · letting hardness go · ease
- 上六Six at the topstuck on the fence · neither forward nor back · difficulty brings good
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 34, Great Vigor, mean yes or no?
- Da Zhuang answers a 'should I' question with 'you can — the question is whether you should do it this way'. The hexagram confirms that you have the strength and the momentum: four yang lines, thunder over heaven. What it withholds is permission to use that strength without restraint. The Judgment's only word is 'steadiness is favourable', and the ram at the fence appears twice in six lines, so the hexagram's yes is a yes to a correct, measured advance and a no to a forced one.
- What does Hexagram 34, 大壯 Great Vigor, mean?
- Thunder above heaven: great strength on the move. Favourable to persevere correctly — real power stays within the bounds of propriety; the ram that butts the hedge gets stuck.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).