Hexagram 51 for love
Hexagram 51 Shock (Thunder) in love and relationships
Zhen is thunder doubled, the eldest son twice over: a sudden jolt and then another. For a relationship it describes a time of shock — something has happened that shakes the bond and makes both people look round in alarm. The judgment is nevertheless 亨, success, and it describes the right response in two images: fear that becomes laughter afterwards, and the worshipper who does not drop the ladle even when thunder frightens the whole countryside. The bond survives if the essential thing is kept in hand.
The lines sort the responses. One is the healthy fright that turns into a new rule between you; two lets go and waits seven days; three is the person in the wrong place who should use the fright to move. Four is the shock that sinks into mud and resolves nothing, five keeps to the centre while thunder comes from both sides, and six is the exhausted partner who should take the neighbour's trouble as a warning and sit still, even if it draws comment.
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
- Is hexagram 51, Shock (Thunder), a good sign for love?
- Zhen is thunder doubled, the eldest son twice over: a sudden jolt and then another. For a relationship it describes a time of shock — something has happened that shakes the bond and makes both people look round in alarm. The judgment is nevertheless 亨, success, and it describes the right response in two images: fear that becomes laughter afterwards, and the worshipper who does not drop the ladle even when thunder frightens the whole countryside. The bond survives if the essential thing is kept in hand.
- 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).