Hexagram 34: Great Power

大壯 (Dà Zhuàng)

Great strength that must be used with wisdom and restraint.

Overview

Your life has reached a point where everything changes. Until now it was better to hold back from any step that would pull you into serious activity.

Why was that necessary? Because in a quiet time of thinking over your plans you could gather new strength, and you did. That pause was needed, because what lies ahead asks far more strength of you than before.

This is the great power you need to have before you enter a new situation.

Now you can meet the new tasks with full confidence in yourself and in your abilities.

People around you

Before you begin something new, be sure to win the support and the goodwill of friends and colleagues. You really do need it. You will see for yourself that without the support of the people around you it will not be easy.

Take the time to ask their advice. Tell them about your plans and ask what they think. But stay sure of your own decisions. Then you will take both criticism and praise calmly, and neither will shake your intentions.

Bring your actions in line with what the people around you are doing. It will be much easier to move toward your goal in the company of people who want the same thing.

Work

Even after thinking everything over and weighing it up, stay careful. You cannot foresee every turn of events. You will have to adjust to what fate decides, and sometimes give up something you want.

When you start, take on something that does not need much energy or time. You have not yet mastered all the knowledge and experience you need. That will come later, when you give yourself fully to the work.

Your wish

Your wish will come true on one condition: do not rely blindly on circumstances, but prepare for them carefully. The harder the task, the more careful and attentive you should be.

If some plans do not come true, do not worry. Wait a little, then return to the path you chose. That kind of persistence tends to bring results.

This Overview is one traditional reading of the figure, offered as a prompt for reflection and perspective rather than a prediction of a fixed future. Where this material comes from.

New to the sequence? See how lines, trigrams and changing lines work, or cast your own reading with the three-coin method.

Structure

Read from the bottom upward, hexagram 34 is Thunder over Heaven. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Lake over Heaven. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Qián · Heaven Creative and strong
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Duì · Lake Joyous and open
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Qián · Heaven Creative and strong