The Arousing
- In Chinese
- 震 zhèn
- Above
- The Arousing, thunder
- Below
- The Arousing, thunder
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 51 means
Hexagram 51 is thunder doubled. Legge takes the thunder as a sign of movement in society, and he reads the hexagram as “the conduct to be pursued in a time of movement”.
The judgment opens well. Legge has “the intimation of ease and development”, and Wilhelm has “SHOCK brings success.”
The person of the hexagram is afraid and steady at once. In Legge's note the text shows him “sensible of the danger of the occasion, but confident and self-possessed”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
震亨。震來虩虩，笑言啞啞，震驚百里，不喪匕鬯。
SHOCK brings success. Shock comes-oh, oh! Laughing words -ha, ha! The shock terrifies for a hundred miles, And he does not let fall the sacrificial spoon and chalice.
success things flow and come through
The image
洊雷、《震》。君子以恐懼脩省。
Thunder repeated: the image of SHOCK. Thus in fear and trembling The superior man sets his life in order And examines himself.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment does not treat fear as a fault. Of the apprehension in the first verse it says “that feeling of dread leads to happiness”. Of the cheerful talk that follows it says “the issue (of his dread) is that he adopts (proper) laws (for his course)”.
The same commentary measures the reach of the thunder. Of the crash that terrifies a hundred lî it says “it startles the distant and frightens the near”.
The judgment ends with a worshipper who does not let go of the ladle and the cup. Legge reads him as someone “rapt in his own important affairs, like a sincere worshipper, thinking only of the service in which he is engaged”. He also reports a reading that ties the symbol to the oldest son who presides over the sacrifices, and his verdict on it is “This is too fanciful.”
The image is thunder repeated. From it the commentary draws a rule for the superior man, who “is fearful and apprehensive, cultivates (his virtue), and examines (his faults)”.
Wilhelm gives the same rule in plainer words. In fear and trembling the superior man “sets his life in order And examines himself”.
Legge sums up the lesson of the whole figure. The person has to be aware of the dangers of the time, and “by precaution and the regulation of himself he may overcome them”.
The six lines
First line
「震來虩虩」，後「笑言啞啞」，吉。
Shock comes—oh, oh! Then follow laughing words—ha, ha! Good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
The first line repeats the heart of the judgment. Apprehension comes first and cheerful talk comes after. Legge notes that “What is said on line 1 is little more than a repetition of the principal part of the Thwan”.
It is the one line with good fortune. The commentary gives the reason in the words “that feeling of dread leads to happiness”.
Legge reports that the success of the hexagram is thought to come from this whole line at the bottom. Its subject “must be superior to the subjects of the two divided lines above”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 16, Enthusiasm
Second line
震來厲，億喪貝，躋于九陵，勿逐，七日得。
Shock comes bringing danger. A hundred thousand times You lose your treasures And must climb the nine hills. Do not go in pursuit of them. After seven days you will get them back again.
danger there is danger
Here the movement arrives with peril. The person lets go of what he has and climbs high, and the text tells him not to chase what he dropped. The line closes with “in seven days he will find them”. The commentary places the peril in the position, where a weak line “is mounted on a strong (one)”.
Legge admits that the rest of the symbolism is obscure. He keeps the common reading, in which “The subject of the line does what he can to get out of danger”, and in the end “the issue is better than could have been expected”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden
Third line
震蘇蘇，震行无眚。
Shock comes and makes one distraught. If shock spurs to action One remains free of misfortune.
no verdict
The third line shows a person “distraught amid the startling movements going on”. The commentary says the line is “in a position unsuitable to it”. Legge explains that the line is divided “where an undivided line should be”.
The way out is to act. Wilhelm has “If shock spurs to action One remains free of misfortune.” Legge reads the action as a move to the fourth place, and then “the issue will not be bad”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 55, Abundance
Fourth line
震遂泥。
Shock is mired.
no verdict
Here the movement gets stuck. Wilhelm has only “Shock is mired.” Legge's subject is “supinely sinking (deeper) in the mud”, and the commentary says that “the light in him has not yet been brilliantly developed”.
Legge explains the picture from the figure. This whole line “is pressed by the divided line on either side”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 24, Return
Fifth line
震往來厲，億无喪，有事。
Shock goes hither and thither. Danger. However, nothing at all is lost. Yet there are things to be done.
danger there is danger
The movements come and go and the peril does not lift. The commentary says “full of risk are his doings”. Still the text allows that he may lose nothing and may find business he can carry out.
Legge finds the reason in the place of the line. The subject is always in peril, “but his central position indicates safety in the end”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 17, Following
Sixth line
震索索，視矍矍，征凶。震不于其躬、于其鄰、无咎。婚媾有言。
Shock brings ruin and terrified gazing around. Going ahead brings misfortune. If it has not yet touched one’s own body But has reached one’s neighbor first, There is no blame. One’s comrades have something to talk about.
misfortune it goes badlyno blame there is no mistake in it
At the top the movement leaves its subject “in breathless dismay”. The text warns against acting in that state, and Legge puts it firmly. “Action on the part of its subject is sure to be evil”.
The commentary says of him that “he has not found out (the course of) the due mean”. Precautions taken before the movement reaches him leave him without error, though his relatives may speak against him.
Legge does not see what in the figure suggests this last picture. He writes “The writer, probably, had a case in his mind, which it suited; but what that was we do not know.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 21, Biting Through
Hexagram 51 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 51 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, where the shock arrives and the ladle is not let go, and the image that answers fear with self-examination.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 51 mean?
It describes how to behave in a time of startling movement. The person is afraid and keeps hold of what matters, and the commentary says “that feeling of dread leads to happiness”.
What does hexagram 51 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 51 that is the shock met without letting go of the ladle, and fear turned into self-examination.
What does hexagram 51 changing to 16 mean?
It is hexagram 51 with its first line moving. That line shows apprehension followed by cheerful talk and ends with “There will be good fortune.” When it changes the hexagram becomes number 16.
What does hexagram 51 changing to 24 mean?
It is hexagram 51 with its fourth line moving. That line shows its subject “supinely sinking (deeper) in the mud”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 24.
Is the fear in hexagram 51 a bad sign?
The text does not treat it as one. The judgment begins with “ease and development”, and the image makes fear the occasion for the superior man to examine his faults.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Kăn in James Legge. Shock in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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