Dà Zhuàng · Great Power
Upper trigram: ☳ Thunder · lower trigram: ☰ Heaven
Power at its zenith, the ram that charges. Use power with uprightness, or the horns become entangled.
The archaic ideogram shows the powerful horns of a great ram thrust into a hedge of thorns it is trying to break through with the brute force of its forehead. "Da Zhuang" means the power of the great, the momentary triumph of Yang energy at its material apogee — yet carrying within it the major risk of getting stuck through lack of subtlety and listening.
The apogee of power and the risk of blindness
This hexagram describes a phase of great physical, financial or political strength. The consultant has a free hand, their means are immense and nothing seems able to resist them. It is a situation of vigorous self-assertion, but the ground is slippery: the temptation is strong to abuse one's position or to force passages while ignoring the warning signs.
Subordinate force to justice and measure
The strategy for success consists, paradoxically, in containing one's own power. The text gives this laconic counsel: "Perseverance is profitable". Do not act like the ram that jams its horns in the fence out of sheer impulsiveness. The Accomplished Being refuses illegitimate or brutal means; they subordinate their strength to the rule of right and show great restraint so as not to shatter the surrounding harmony.
From a structural point of view, the figure joins the trigram of Heaven (Qian, pure firmness, vigour) below to the trigram of Thunder (Zhen, violent movement, impulse) above. Four massive Yang lines push upward with extraordinary violence. The challenge for the consultant is to tame this Yang impulsiveness so that it neither turns against them nor injures others.
Each line is read only if it is changing in your cast. A changing line transforms the figure: the link under each text shows which hexagram it leads to.
Three-coin or yarrow-stalk cast, changing lines, outlook figure — computed on your device, no account.