Line 6 of
Hexagram 51: 震
“Shake” — King Wen #51 · 上六
Line 6 上六
震索索，視矍矍，征凶。震不于其躬，于其鄰，無咎。婚媾有言。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject, amidst the startling movements (of the time), in breathless dismay and looking round him with trembling apprehension. If he take action, there will be evil. If, while the startling movements have not reached his own person and his neighbourhood, (he were to take precautions), there would be no error, though his relatives might (still) speak against him.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 6 changing turns hexagram 51 into䷔ Hexagram 21: 噬嗑 — “Gnawing Bite”Read line 6 of hexagram 21 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 6 of hexagram 51 is a yielding (yin) line occupying the top line, where the theme of the figure has run its course. The classical line statement — 震索索，視矍矍，征凶。震不于其躬，于其鄰，無咎。婚媾有言。 — is what commentators from the Ten Wings onward have read as the figure's own commentary on this one position. James Legge's 1882 rendering, quoted above, keeps the imagery of the original: each line of a hexagram is read as a stage of the same picture, and this page collects the source text for that stage. If you treat the line as moving in the traditional way, flipping it alone produces the changed hexagram linked above; readers have long used that pair of figures to compare a situation as given with the same situation one line different. As always with classical divination texts, this is presented for cultural and reference interest — the text itself carries no prediction about any modern reader's situation.
Questions About Hexagram 51 Line 6
What does line 6 of hexagram 51 say?
The received text reads: 震索索，視矍矍，征凶。震不于其躬，于其鄰，無咎。婚媾有言。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject, amidst the startling movements (of the time), in breathless dismay and looking round him with trembling apprehension. If he take action, there will be evil. If, while the startling movements have not reached his own person and his neighbourhood, (he were to take precautions), there would be no error, though his relatives might (still) speak against him.”
Which hexagram does line 6 change hexagram 51 into?
Changing only line 6 of hexagram 51 (震, “Shake”) gives hexagram 21 — 噬嗑 (shì kè, “Gnawing Bite”). This is the classical way a changed hexagram is derived from moving lines.
Are line pages available for every hexagram?
Yes. Every one of the 64 hexagrams now has six line pages — one per line from the bottom line up to the top line — each with the classical Chinese text, Legge's 1882 translation, and the changed hexagram that line produces when it moves.
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1882), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and reference — not financial, medical, or life advice.