大壮
GUA 34 · DA4 ZHUANG
BIG AND STRONG
Overall Image (大象)
Thunder in the sky above
Big and strong
The noble young one, accordingly, outside of respect,
will not take a step▼
Overall Image (大象)
Thunder in the sky above
Big and strong
The noble young one, accordingly, outside of respect,
will not take a step
Great vigor, on top of great strength. With the pure force of heaven behind it, what voice is more mighty than thunder? And yet even when two parts in three are pure strength, if there is no sense of where best to go and what best to do, then the force will not do work and thus it cannot be power. Power will have a proper path, and it is usually on it: it will go where the world opens up to it. It has the sound of doors slamming open. Thunder may be efficient, but only in its aimlessness. Living things want to be more specific, and displace things from place to place, and thus consider efficiencies whenever a choice is involved. They need respect and regard for facts.
Main Judgment (Big and Strong) (卦辞)
Worthwhile to persist▼
Main Judgment (Big and Strong) (卦辞)
Worthwhile to persist
To persist is not to try to persist. It’s to move and succeed in persisting. Success at this will measure its worth. Self-destructive and self-defeating behavior cannot then be power, no matter how much force is applied. Power will find the way to its end. It is hard for a thing to be great if it is not also correct, or obeying the natural laws. Power is not a quantity, or a quantum of force, or a strain in the muscles, a feeling of having one’s purpose stressed and resisted: this is force, and no great force at that. Power is the rate at which one slips past all of this, and then succeeds, as the dancer moves with the music’s pulse and transforms one thing into another. The wise are not entangled in an identity with force: they will master its clean release. Persistence across and through time is different than pounding and blundering forward: it might even pause to sense some new directions to go, new choices opening up, and so it’s a form of intelligence. When force is too blind, or its purpose too narrow, to pause and consider its options, the complicated results of its own simple-minded activity will often be its biggest problems and obstacles. Survival of the fittest means fitting.
Key Words (关键词)
Much, great, full, big, major, extensive + strength, vigor, energy, potency, force▼
Key Words (关键词)
Much, great, full, big, major, extensive + strength, vigor, energy, potency, force
Assertion, aggression, self-reliance, tenacity, forging ahead; initiative, purpose To be headstrong, demanding, pushy, obstinate, obsessed, driven; testing a limit Robust, dominant; feedforward, the need for feedback & sense; might needs right Power wanting governing; meta-solutions to problems; problems of tunnel vision, Insight as reorganizing perceptual field; power is really measured by effectiveness
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
Sovereign Gua, 2nd Moon (Mar)
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Pluto in Fire
planet:Pluto
element:Fire
Tarot
card:Ten of Wands
suit:Wands
Qabalah
note:Malkuth in Assiah
sphere:Malkuth
The Lines
11st • YangPowerful in the toes
To go boldly bodes ill for staying confident▼
1
1st • YangPowerful in the toes
To go boldly bodes ill for staying confident
34.1x Powerful in the toes:
Such confidence (is soon) exhausted
Thinking to go by leaps and bounds, with great and powerful strides, he summons great vigor into his toes. But little is left to power his mind. Were a stone to jump into the path ahead, which heaven does not forbid, it would trip him up before he could think to jump over it. Vigor like this might go a step further and punish that stone with a powerful kick. Two defeats from an unarmed rock will surely lead to loss of self-confidence. What a fate, and not the no-brainer it seems. Might does not make right and impetuousness is not the best source of impetus. It’s not the critter who kicks the most butt who persists: the one best fit to its place will have the power to stay. The toes, and kicks too, are great things. The fetus first learns about life by kicking the womb, spending force to see what gives. But brains should co-evolve.
22nd • YangPersistence is promising▼
2
2nd • YangPersistence is promising
34.2x Nine second’s persistence (is) promising:
Using balance
What is persistence? What does it promise? Persisting is going through to an end and still be standing there. Persevering goes through more severe times to an end and may be barely still standing. But the only promise to trust is that you then get to see what is there at the end. That will also mean you’ve succeeded. It can also be promised that something important will change between here and there, and that is why persistence should never mean staying the same. One balances the force with restraint. Momentum and inertia are very handy things, but they’ll fight any change of direction. Equilibrium is just as important. Look at the the conquering hero who calls up all of his strength to open up a passage, but finds that the door offers little resistance. So he falls mightily flat on his face: a bad way to treat good momentum.
33rd • YangOrdinary people apply force
The noble young one uses his wits*
Persistence is trouble
The billy goat* butts the hedge
Entangling his horns▼
3
3rd • YangOrdinary people apply force
The noble young one uses his wits*
Persistence is trouble
The billy goat* butts the hedge
Entangling his horns
34.3x Ordinary people apply force:
(To) the noble young one, a snare*
The goal of the ram or he goat is simple: out, now, and beyond all of this. He throws all of his weight straight at the problem, head first, his headlong rush only numbing his skull even further. This is a bone-headed way to do things. He has lots of nerve, but none in his horns and not much more in his head. Then he exhausts himself in fighting his own entanglements. Horns are not made like antennae, for sensing the new opportunities. Inferior men might spend all of their strength like this, fighting existence first, then the consequences of previous actions. Average men might try a few times, then look for a better way. The wise have rules about this sort of thing: their heads are their friends, not hammers and bludgeons. Just one assassin can win a war that thousands of soldiers lose. The wise use neural nets to get that net result.
44th • YangPersistence is promising
While regrets pass
The hedge opens with no entanglement
The power in the great vehicle is in its axle’s mount▼
4
4th • YangPersistence is promising
While regrets pass
The hedge opens with no entanglement
The power in the great vehicle is in its axle’s mount
34.4x The hedge opens up with no entanglements:
Appreciate going forward
The lead man on the battering ram gets the novel idea to give the doorknob a try. The ram might take a bit longer, but he crashes through at last, scrambles back to his hooves and gets free. He will not stop to consider that he might have stumbled by luck onto the weak spot, but will credit the force expended and possibly struggle longer the next time. The ram might never unlearn that force is what works. Power revolves around what works, the finding and opening up of the possible. The wheel might roll with no axle, but it will not take anything with it. And our vehicles are but furniture until their wheels are rolling. Power is in the usefulness, or ability to work. Great power makes use of the still points, axioms, pivotal moments, quiet hearts of a matter and windows of opportunity. The good hub won’t squeak, let alone rumble.
55th • YangLosing the goat with ease
No regrets▼
5
5th • YangLosing the goat with ease
No regrets
34.5x Losing the goat with ease:
The position (was) not appropriate
The ram bangs away at the fence outside. When all this is followed at long last by silence, the one in the farmhouse pretends not to notice. But the horrible headache soon goes away. Obstinacy might have its uses at times, when clever solutions are scarce. It is harder to lose amidst difficulty. But twice the effort it saves is spent to contain the damned thing when not needed. A little math might weigh cost against benefit and make this loss easy to suffer. Then ram strength immortal can have his green pastures beyond and only serve ewes when he’s wanted. They do say that it feels so good when you finally stop banging your head on the wall, but this is no reason to do that. Those brutal and headstrong approaches to living are just beastly things to let go of. But to drop such a hindrance is a great deal like moving forward.
6Top • YangThe billy goat butts the hedge
No power to pull back
No power to follow through
Not a direction with merit
But problems give rise to opportunities▼
6
Top • YangThe billy goat butts the hedge
No power to pull back
No power to follow through
Not a direction with merit
But problems give rise to opportunities
34.6x No power to pull back,
No power to follow through:
Not examining details
* Problems give rise to opportunities:
The error does not last long
The prodigal ram falls back on his old habits, out at that far frontier of his freedom. He has tried to butt his way through a hedge and is caught by his horns on a snag. He cannot go forth and he cannot retreat. He is at his wit’s end and didn’t get far. It will not be easy for a ram to see that puzzles and obstacles might have different solutions. Even when his horns become hooks he will not be inclined to pause and ponder the problems, or the curve of his horns. He will not be free until he, or the shepherd, or maybe the predator, turns his head around. He can do this indirectly by trying different perspectives, or seeing things from new angles, or questioning old directions, or simply pausing to have a quick look around. Sometimes to find the objective one needs to drop the objective and bring out those other dimensions.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 34 begins on Page 264-272.
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