The Power of the Great is strength at full measure — four strong lines below, two yielding above. It is a favourable hexagram with an unusual warning attached: power this size needs a reason.
The structure: Thunder over Heaven
Heaven below, thunder above. Creative force underneath and movement over it — power that is already in motion.
The Judgment
The Power of the Great. Perseverance furthers.
Two words, and the whole qualification is in them. Perseverance is what keeps great power from becoming mere force.
The Image
Thunder in heaven above: the image of the Power of the Great. Thus the superior man does not tread upon paths that do not accord with established order.
The instruction is the important part: the person with great power restrains himself precisely because he does not have to.
The lines
- Line 1 — Power in the toes. Undertaking brings misfortune. This is certainly true.
- Line 2 — Perseverance brings good fortune.
- Line 3 — The inferior man works through power. The superior man does not act thus. To continue is dangerous.
- Line 4 — Perseverance brings good fortune and remorse disappears. The wall falls away; power does not fail.
- Line 5 — He loses his goat easily. No remorse.
- Line 6 — A goat butts against a hedge. It cannot go backward, it cannot get through anywhere.
The goat recurs in lines 5 and 6 as an image of blunt force. In 5 it is let go without regret; in 6 it is trapped by its own momentum.
What to watch for
The specific risk of this hexagram is not weakness but excess. Lines 1, 3 and 6 each show power applied where it does not fit.
The goat and the hedge
The recurring image is a goat that has charged and cannot now get free. Force committed in the wrong direction cannot be recalled, only abandoned — which is why lines 5 and 6 read so differently.
Line 4 offers the alternative: power applied so well that the obstacle simply ceases to matter. The wall falls away.
This is the hexagram's real argument. Great power is not dangerous because it is strong, but because it is expensive to redirect once committed.
Why the judgment is only two words
The terseness is the qualification. Where other hexagrams spell out conditions, this one assumes strength is present and says only what to do with it: persevere. Power without direction dissipates.
Thunder in heaven above
The Image is thunder above heaven, which is an unusual direction — normally heaven is above. Here the force is already in motion, which is why restraint is the named instruction.