Hexagram 51 as yes or no
Hexagram 51 Shock (Thunder) as a yes-or-no answer
Zhen answers a yes-or-no question with 'success, but after a shock'. The matter you ask about will arrive like thunder: alarming, loud, over quickly, and followed by something better if you keep hold of what matters while it passes. The judgment is not advice to avoid the jolt — it cannot be avoided — but to be the person who is frightened and still does not drop the ladle.
The lines turn that into a practical answer. In the lower trigram the shock is still arriving: line one says yes, after the fright settles into a rule; line two says let go and wait seven days; line three says yes, if moving takes you out of a bad position. In the upper trigram the shock is repeating: line four says no, you would only sink; line five says keep doing what is yours and the losses stay small; line six says no, you are too shaken to act and the warning is meant for you.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder upon thunder: shock. It arrives with alarm and is followed by laughter; the shock shakes a hundred miles, yet the sacrificial spoon is not dropped.
Let the jolt wake you rather than scatter you; examine yourself, keep your composure, and keep the essential thing in hand.
The judgment
震：亨。震來虩虩，笑言啞啞。震驚百里，不喪匕鬯。Kăn gives the intimation of ease and development. When (the time of) movement (which it indicates) comes, (the subject of the hexagram) will be found looking out with apprehension, and yet smiling and talking cheerfully. When the movement (like a crash of thunder) terrifies all within a hundred lî, he will be (like the sincere worshipper) who is not (startled into) letting go his ladle and (cup of) sacrificial spirits.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 震 Shock (Thunder) has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningfirst shock · fear then laughter · rules found
- 六二Six in the second placedanger · let it go · seven days
- 六三Six in the third placeunnerved · wrong place · move anyway
- 九四Nine in the fourth placestuck in mud · momentum lost · light not yet shining
- 六五Six in the fifth placegoing and coming · danger in the centre · nothing lost
- 上六Six at the toptrembling · neighbour's warning · hold back
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 51, Shock (Thunder), mean yes or no?
- Zhen answers a yes-or-no question with 'success, but after a shock'. The matter you ask about will arrive like thunder: alarming, loud, over quickly, and followed by something better if you keep hold of what matters while it passes. The judgment is not advice to avoid the jolt — it cannot be avoided — but to be the person who is frightened and still does not drop the ladle.
- What does Hexagram 51, 震 Shock (Thunder), mean?
- Thunder upon thunder: shock. It arrives with alarm and is followed by laughter; the shock shakes a hundred miles, yet the sacrificial spoon is not dropped.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).