I Ching Hexagram 34: Great Power - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 34, Great Power (Da Zhuang), means strength that has fully arrived and now has to be governed rather than spent. Thunder sits above Heaven, four yang lines press upward, and the text warns through the image of a ram whose horns catch in a fence. This guide covers the trigrams, the Judgement and Image, all six changing lines, and the nuclear and opposite hexagrams.

What does I Ching Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 34, Great Power, means strength that has fully arrived and now has to be governed rather than spent. The Chinese name is Da Zhuang, where zhuang carries the sense of robust, muscular and vigorous, and da, great, is the standing term in the I Ching for yang. Four unbroken yang lines stand shoulder to shoulder from the base of the figure, with only two broken lines above them. Nothing in the situation is holding the reader back, and that is precisely the condition the hexagram treats as dangerous. In the King Wen sequence Great Power follows Hexagram 33, Retreat, on the reasoning that nothing withdraws forever, so pressure stored during a withdrawal now comes out at once. People who draw Hexagram 34 are usually in a position of visible advantage: the funding is secured, the argument is won, the body is healthy, the other side is smaller. Almost every word of the text is spent on how such advantage gets wasted. Its recurring picture is a ram charging a fence and driving its horns between the rails, an animal defeated by nothing except its own momentum. Great Power is a favorable hexagram written in the register of a warning.

The calendar of the twelve sovereign hexagrams sharpens the meaning. Those figures track yang entering from the bottom and leaving from the top across a year, and Great Power holds the second lunar month. Hexagram 34 is therefore a stage in a rising tide, not a summit, and the correct posture toward a rising tide is preparation rather than celebration. The two translations most English readers meet handle the name differently. The Wilhelm and Baynes edition published in 1950 gives The Power of the Great, keeping da as the subject so that the great ones are the ones who are strong, while James Legge renders the sense as greatness in strength. Da Zhuang is not raw force belonging to whoever grabs it. It is force attached to something already large and already established, which is why the hexagram assumes the reader is the powerful party and addresses them as such throughout.

What does the name Da Zhuang mean in Hexagram 34?

Da Zhuang, the Chinese name of Hexagram 34, joins da, great, with zhuang, strong in the physical sense of a well-muscled body. Because da is the I Ching term for yang, the name reports the state of the figure: the great lines have grown strong and hold four of six places.

Is Hexagram 34, Great Power, a good or bad omen?

Hexagram 34 is a good omen about circumstances and a cautionary one about conduct. The Judgement names no misfortune, so the position is sound, while four of six line texts show strength injuring itself. Favorable with a condition attached is the standard reading of Great Power.

Why does Hexagram 34 follow Hexagram 33, Retreat?

Hexagram 34 follows Hexagram 33 because the sequence commentary reasons that things cannot retreat forever. Retreat shows yang giving ground as yin advances; Great Power shows yang holding four places and pressing upward again. The pairing also works visually, since turning Hexagram 34 upside down produces Hexagram 33.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 34, and why does Thunder over Heaven mean Great Power?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, is formed from Zhen, Thunder, in the upper position and Qian, Heaven, in the lower position. Qian is three unbroken lines and its attribute is jian, tireless strength, the quality of something that keeps going without being pushed. Zhen is one yang line under two yin lines and its attribute is dong, movement, the shock that starts things. The Tuan commentary states the combination directly: firmness that moves, and therefore strength. Read as a machine, Hexagram 34 has a power source that never tires sitting under an accelerator, with no water to slow it and no mountain to stop it. Read as a picture, thunder has risen above heaven, which means sound rolling in open sky with nothing beneath it to strike. That detail carries the warning inside the structure itself. Thunder in the sky is at once its loudest and its least targeted. It announces enormous force to everyone within earshot while making contact with nothing at all. In Hexagram 34 the noise and the reach are real, and the question the whole hexagram asks is what the force will land on when it finally comes down.

Flipping the arrangement shows what it does. Thunder above Heaven is Hexagram 34, Great Power. Heaven above Thunder is Hexagram 25, Innocence, where movement sits beneath the sky and is subordinate to it. The same two trigrams reversed invert the moral: in Hexagram 25 movement obeys heaven, and in Hexagram 34 movement has climbed on top of heaven and now directs it. That is the structural definition of Great Power, and it explains why the Image responds with a restriction rather than an encouragement. Four yang lines rising in unbroken order form a solid block with no yin line inside it to soften or interrupt the run, so no internal check exists anywhere in the lower two-thirds of the figure. The only yielding lines are the fifth and sixth, above the point of maximum thrust. Whatever restraint exists in Hexagram 34 must come from above, from position, or from the reader supplying it.

What does the Qian trigram contribute to Hexagram 34?

Qian, Heaven, forms the lower half of Hexagram 34 and supplies endurance rather than a burst. Its attribute jian is strength that does not tire, so the power in Great Power is not a spike that fades on its own. It keeps pushing until something outside it stops it.

What does the Zhen trigram contribute to Hexagram 34?

Zhen, Thunder, forms the upper half of Hexagram 34 and supplies movement, arousal and noise. Its single yang line breaks out upward. Placed over Qian, Zhen converts steady strength into motion, which is why Hexagram 34 describes force in action rather than force at rest.

How does Hexagram 34 differ from Hexagram 25, which uses the same trigrams?

Hexagram 34 places Thunder above Heaven; Hexagram 25, Innocence, places Heaven above Thunder. In Hexagram 25 movement is under the sky and follows it, giving unforced natural action. In Hexagram 34 movement has risen above the sky and commands it, giving force that must be voluntarily restrained.

What do the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 34, Great Power, say?

The Judgement of Hexagram 34, Great Power, is four characters, Da Zhuang li zhen, usually rendered as The Power of the Great: perseverance furthers. Zhen means both persistence and correctness, so the phrase asks for holding a course and holding it straight at the same time. What the Judgement leaves out is as informative as what it says. There is no supreme success, no promise that it furthers one to cross the great water, no named goal reached. Hexagram 1, The Creative, opens with four terms, yuan heng li zhen, and Hexagram 34 keeps only the last two. Enormous strength is present and the text declines to attach any achievement to it. The Tuan commentary explains why in a single stroke: the great is what is correct, and when something is both great and correct, the disposition of heaven and earth becomes visible. Correctness is not an extra virtue added onto power in Hexagram 34. It is the condition under which power counts as great at all. Strip it out and Da Zhuang stops describing greatness and starts describing a large animal moving fast.

The Image of Hexagram 34 reads: thunder in heaven above, the image of the Power of the Great; thus the junzi does not tread on paths that do not accord with propriety. The Chinese turns on li, the word for ritual form and correct conduct, and the counsel is negative: what is not li, he does not step on. That negative form is deliberate. In most hexagrams the advice to the junzi is an action, as when Hexagram 1 tells him to make himself strong and untiring. Hexagram 34 tells him where not to put his foot. Power removes external limits, so the only limit left is form itself. A reader holding Great Power will not be stopped by circumstance, so the discipline asked for is a shorter list of permitted moves rather than a longer list of goals: in a strong position, keep the rules you would have kept when weak.

What does perseverance furthers mean in the Judgement of Hexagram 34?

In the Judgement of Hexagram 34, perseverance furthers translates li zhen, where zhen covers persistence and rectitude together. It advises staying with a course and staying correct within it. The advantage in Great Power is gained by continuing in the same straight direction, not by pressing harder.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 34 promise so little?

The Judgement of Hexagram 34 promises little because the hexagram already contains the advantage. Four yang lines mean the resources are present, so the oracle has no reason to forecast success and every reason to address conduct. The language of great achievement is withheld to stop the reader treating strength as a result.

What does the Image of Hexagram 34 mean by propriety?

Propriety in the Image of Hexagram 34 translates li, meaning ritual form and correct conduct: the agreed shapes that make behavior legible to others. Telling the junzi not to tread where li does not extend means keeping to procedure, courtesy and contract exactly when strength makes them skippable.

What do the first three changing lines of Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean?

The first three changing lines of Hexagram 34, Great Power, all describe strength that starts moving before it should. Nine at the beginning reads: power in the toes; continuing brings misfortune, and this is certainly true. Strength has settled in the part of the body farthest from the center of judgement, at the bottom of the hexagram where the least authority sits, and the text adds an unusual note of certainty to the warning. Nine in the second place is the shortest text in the hexagram: perseverance brings good fortune. This is a yang line in an even place, not correct by position yet central in the lower trigram, and that mismatch is the point. The line holds strength inside a position that does not flatter it, the one combination in Hexagram 34 that produces plain good fortune with nothing attached. Nine in the third place brings in the ram: the small man works through power, the junzi does not; to continue is dangerous; a ram butts against a hedge and gets its horns entangled. Position three is yang in a yang place at the top of Qian, doubled strength with no centrality to steady it.

Following where each line leads adds another layer. When nine at the beginning changes, Hexagram 34 becomes Hexagram 32, Duration, the correction the line implies: what was going to be spent in a first kick gets converted into something that lasts. When nine in the second changes, the result is Hexagram 55, Abundance, the figure of a peak so full it casts a shadow, which is what steady centrality earns over time. When nine in the third changes, Hexagram 34 becomes Hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden, which describes a person who has entered a situation in a subordinate and irregular position. That transformation describes what happens to the ram: force applied against a structure does not break the structure, it lowers the standing of whoever applied it. Line three is often treated as the moral center of Hexagram 34, since it is the only line naming the small man and the junzi side by side and saying that the difference between them is whether power is the method.

What does power in the toes mean in line one of Hexagram 34?

Power in the toes, at nine at the beginning of Hexagram 34, means strength concentrated at the extremity that moves first and knows least. Toes start a stride before the body decides where it is going. The line warns that acting on the earliest surge of strength brings misfortune, and states plainly that this holds.

Why is line two of Hexagram 34 simply good fortune?

Nine in the second place of Hexagram 34 is good fortune because it is a strong line held in a central position within a yielding place. It has the force of the hexagram without the exposure of the top or the haste of the base. Great Power rewards centrality, and line two is the clearest instance.

What does the ram and hedge in line three of Hexagram 34 warn against?

Line three of Hexagram 34 warns against using power as the method. The ram charges a fence and wedges its horns in the rails, so its own strength and speed become the trap. The text contrasts the small man, who works through force, with the junzi, who does not, and calls continuing dangerous.

What do the upper three changing lines of Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean?

The upper three changing lines of Hexagram 34, Great Power, move from the one clear breakthrough to the hexagram's most complete deadlock. Nine in the fourth place reads: perseverance brings good fortune, remorse disappears; the hedge opens and there is no entanglement; power lies in the axle brace of a large cart. Wilhelm treats this line as the ruler of Hexagram 34. It is the highest yang line, standing where the solid block meets the yielding lines above, and it is the only place where the fence gives way instead of catching. The relocation of strength matters: not in horns, not in toes, but in the wooden brace holding a cart's axle to its body, the load-bearing part nobody looks at. Six in the fifth place reads: loses the ram with ease, no remorse. Here a yielding line holds the ruler's position and the animal that has caused every problem in the hexagram is simply let go. Six at the top returns to the ram and closes the trap: it butts the hedge and can go neither backward nor forward; nothing furthers; if one notes the difficulty, this brings good fortune.

The changes these lines produce map the whole arc. Nine in the fourth changing turns Hexagram 34 into Hexagram 11, Peace, the figure of heaven and earth in circulation, which is the reward for putting strength in the axle rather than the horns. Six in the fifth changing produces Hexagram 43, Break-through, the same figure that sits inside Hexagram 34 as its nuclear hexagram, so releasing the ram delivers the reading to its own hidden core. Six at the top changing gives Hexagram 14, Possession in Great Measure, which is what stalling can still become once the reader admits the stall. That admission is the whole content of the last line, which offers no escape from the hedge. On the fifth line, the phrase about losing the ram at yi carries a longer history. Modern textual scholarship connects it to the legend of Wang Hai, a distant ancestor of the Shang who lost his herds at a place called Yi, and the same lost animal reappears at the top line of Hexagram 56, The Wanderer.

What does the axle brace of a large cart mean in line four of Hexagram 34?

The axle brace at nine in the fourth place of Hexagram 34 relocates strength from the point of impact to the point of load. A cart moves because the brace holds the axle to the body under weight. Great Power here means force placed in structure and carrying capacity rather than in an attacking edge.

What does losing the ram with ease mean in line five of Hexagram 34?

Six in the fifth place of Hexagram 34 means giving up the butting instinct without a struggle and without regret. A yielding line holds the ruling seat, so the animal that wrecked lines three and six is let go. Nothing is lost that was worth keeping, which is why the text adds no remorse.

Why is recognizing difficulty good fortune in line six of Hexagram 34?

Six at the top of Hexagram 34 shows the ram wedged in the hedge, unable to advance or retreat, with nothing that furthers. Good fortune arrives only when the reader registers the difficulty as real. Recognition stops the pushing, and in Great Power stopping the push is the only move that changes the position.

What are the nuclear, reversed and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 34, Great Power?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, has Hexagram 43, Break-through, as its nuclear hexagram, Hexagram 33, Retreat, as its reversed hexagram, and Hexagram 20, Contemplation, as its opposite. The nuclear figure is built from the inner lines: lines two, three and four of Hexagram 34 give Qian, Heaven, and lines three, four and five give Dui, Lake, producing Lake above Heaven, which is Break-through. Turning Hexagram 34 upside down puts the two yin lines at the bottom and the four yang lines above them, giving Heaven over Mountain, Hexagram 33, Retreat, the figure that precedes Great Power in the King Wen sequence. Changing every line to its opposite gives Wind over Earth, Hexagram 20, Contemplation, where a ruler surveys a situation instead of acting on it. Read from the outside: what is hidden inside Hexagram 34 wants resolution, what it becomes when tipped over is withdrawal, and what it is not, at every single line, is quiet observation.

The opposite hexagram is the most instructive of the three, because Hexagram 20, Contemplation, is a figure of watching from a height with almost no capacity to intervene. Wind moves over the earth and touches everything without forcing anything, and the observer there influences the situation only by being seen. Great Power is the photographic negative: enormous capacity to intervene, very little watching. Holding the two side by side gives a working diagnostic, since the corrective for whatever Hexagram 34 gets wrong is contained in Hexagram 20, which is to look before moving. The nuclear hexagram cuts the other way. Break-through describes a decision that has to be announced publicly and a weak element that has to be named, so what is stored inside Great Power is an approaching moment of declaration.

How is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 34 calculated?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 34 comes from its middle four lines. Lines two, three and four are all yang and form Qian, Heaven, as the lower nuclear trigram; lines three, four and five are yang, yang and yin and form Dui, Lake, as the upper. Lake above Heaven is Hexagram 43, Break-through.

Why is Hexagram 20, Contemplation, the opposite of Hexagram 34?

Hexagram 20, Contemplation, is the opposite of Hexagram 34 because inverting all six lines of Great Power yields Wind above Earth. Every yang line of force becomes a yin line of receptivity. Contemplation observes without intervening, the exact behavior four solid lines pressing upward are least able to perform.

What does the pairing of Hexagram 33 and Hexagram 34 show?

Hexagram 33, Retreat, and Hexagram 34, Great Power, are the same figure turned upside down, so the King Wen sequence treats them as one pair. Retreat is yang giving ground as yin rises from below; Great Power is yang holding four places and pressing up. The pair marks the turn from yielding ground to taking it.

What does Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean for a decision?

For a decision, Hexagram 34, Great Power, confirms that you have the means and questions whether you have the right approach. The four yang lines say the resources, leverage and backing are already assembled, so the usual question of sufficient strength is answered yes. What the hexagram then examines is method. Nine at the beginning warns that acting on the first surge brings misfortune, which in a decision reads as a caution against moving on the day the strength arrives. Nine in the third and six at the top both show force meeting a structure that will not bend, pointing to any obstacle made of rules, contracts, procedure or another person's standing. Those do not yield to pressure, and pressing them converts a strong position into an embarrassing one. Nine in the fourth gives the affirmative version: the barrier opens when strength is placed in the load-bearing part, meaning the decision that goes through is the one carried by preparation, documentation and durable arrangements rather than by an assertive push. Hexagram 34 favors the deliberate option over the forceful one every time the two are in tension.

Timing is the practical yield of Hexagram 34 for a decision, and the tidal position tells you how to read it. Great Power holds the second lunar month, with yang still rising toward Hexagram 43 and Hexagram 1, so the tide is coming in rather than turning. Waiting does not cost you strength here, which is why delay carries so little penalty in the line texts and haste carries so much. Where the reading involves a contest, Great Power adds a specific caution: you are almost certainly the larger party, and the text assumes it throughout, addressing the reader as the one with the horns. That changes what a win looks like. Six in the fifth place shows the ruling position letting the ram go without regret, so the strongest decision available under Hexagram 34 may be the one that declines to use the advantage at all.

Does Hexagram 34, Great Power, advise waiting or acting?

Hexagram 34 advises acting on structure and waiting on impulse. The line texts punish the first movement at nine at the beginning and reward the prepared advance at nine in the fourth. Because yang is still rising here, a delay does not drain the advantage, so patience costs nothing that force would gain.

What kind of obstacle does Hexagram 34 warn a decision-maker about?

Hexagram 34 warns about obstacles made of form rather than of strength: a rule, a contract, a procedure, a person's standing, a physical limit. The hedge in Great Power does not fight back and does not break. It holds shape, and force applied to it entangles whoever applied it.

How should you use an advantage under Hexagram 34?

Under Hexagram 34, use the advantage as capacity rather than as pressure. Nine in the fourth places power in the axle brace of a cart, which carries load rather than striking. In a decision that means spending the strong position on preparation, resourcing and durable terms, never on making the other side move because they cannot resist.

What does Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean in a relationship reading?

In a relationship reading, Hexagram 34, Great Power, describes an imbalance of force between two people and asks the stronger one to hold back. The hexagram is unusually blunt about who is being addressed: four solid lines pressed together, two yielding lines above, and a text that speaks to whoever has the horns. Where a relationship is at stake, that usually means the partner with more certainty, more income, more social weight, or simply more willingness to keep arguing after the other has stopped. The ram at nine in the third and six at the top is the reader who wins the conversation by pushing until the other person gives way, and both lines say that outcome is a trap rather than a victory. What gets wedged in the hedge is the relationship itself. The Image supplies the remedy in one clause: do not tread where propriety does not extend. In a partnership that means keeping the courtesies, the asking and the agreed boundaries exactly when strength makes them skippable, since power between two people shows up mainly as the option to skip them.

Hexagram 34 also reads well for the newer or more intense stage of a connection, where thunder rolling above heaven describes attraction that arrives loud and unanchored. Nine at the beginning is precise about this: power in the toes, and continuing brings misfortune. Moving at the pace of that first surge is the error. For an established partnership, nine in the fourth is the useful line, since it relocates strength from horns to the brace under the cart. In a relationship that means load-bearing rather than assertive: carrying more of the difficulty, absorbing more of the shock, and letting strength appear as capacity rather than as insistence. That line also says the hedge opens, and it opens when the force stops being aimed at it.

What does Hexagram 34 say about power imbalance between partners?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, treats a power imbalance as the given condition of the reading and addresses the stronger partner. The four yang lines and the ram imagery assume the reader can prevail by pressure. Every warning in the hexagram is aimed at that ability, and none is aimed at the yielding side.

What does Hexagram 34 mean for a new relationship?

For a new relationship, Hexagram 34 describes attraction that has arrived with force and has nothing under it yet, matching thunder above heaven. Nine at the beginning, power in the toes, warns that moving at the speed of the first surge brings misfortune. Great Power favors structure developing before momentum does.

How does Hexagram 34 read for an argument with a partner?

In an argument, Hexagram 34 identifies the reader as the ram and the disagreement as the hedge. Lines three and six show that continuing to press leaves both parties stuck. Six in the fifth place gives the alternative: let the contested point go with ease, and the text explicitly adds that there is no remorse.

What does Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean for work and career?

For work and career, Hexagram 34, Great Power, indicates a strong position with real leverage and warns that the main threat is self-inflicted. Four yang lines describe someone whose results are visible, whose department is funded, or whose skills are in demand, and the Judgement raises no obstacle to any of it. The hazard the hexagram tracks is what such a person does with a structure that refuses to move, which at work usually means a policy, a budget cycle, an approvals process, a legal review or a senior colleague's authority. Nine in the third and six at the top show what happens when force is applied to those: the horns wedge, and the outcome is not a broken fence but a stuck ram. Nine in the fourth is the working model instead, placing power in the axle brace of a cart. In a career reading that points at the unglamorous load-bearing work of documentation, staffing, process and relationships that hold weight under strain, and it is the only line where the barrier gives way. Nine in the second adds the steady version: hold a central position and persist, and good fortune follows without any dramatic move.

Hexagram 34 has a specific reading for the newly promoted or newly resourced. The tidal placement puts Great Power at the second lunar month, mid-ascent, so the promotion is a stage rather than an arrival and the strength will keep growing whether or not it is used immediately. That removes the argument for demonstrating force early. Nine at the beginning is the direct warning to the new arrival: power in the toes, continuing brings misfortune, which is the person who reorganizes in week one. The Image gives the alternative conduct in one instruction, that the junzi does not tread where propriety does not extend, and inside an organization propriety is procedure. A strong position makes procedure optional, and skipping it is exactly how a strong position gets spent.

What does Hexagram 34 mean for a promotion or new authority?

Hexagram 34 reads a promotion as mid-ascent rather than arrival, since Great Power holds the second lunar month with yang still rising. Nine at the beginning warns the newly empowered against acting on the first surge. The strength will continue to grow, so there is nothing to prove in the opening weeks.

How does Hexagram 34 read for a workplace conflict?

In a workplace conflict, Hexagram 34 casts the reader as the stronger party and the obstacle as a structure that holds shape: policy, process or another person's authority. Pressing it wedges the horns, as lines three and six show. Six in the fifth place offers release of the contested point with no remorse.

What kind of work does Hexagram 34 reward?

Hexagram 34 rewards load-bearing work over forceful work. Nine in the fourth locates power in the axle brace that holds a cart together under weight, and it is the one line where the hedge opens. In career terms that favors documentation, staffing, process and durable arrangements over assertive pushes for ground.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is I Ching Hexagram 34, Great Power, a lucky hexagram?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, is favorable in position and risky in behavior. The Judgement names no misfortune and no obstacle, yet four of its six line texts describe an animal wounding itself on a fence. The advantage in Hexagram 34 is already in hand; whether it survives depends on restraint rather than effort.

What does the ram and the hedge mean in Hexagram 34?

The ram butting a hedge is the central image of Hexagram 34, Great Power, and appears in three of its six lines. The animal charges, drives its horns between the rails and wedges fast, defeated by nothing stronger than itself. In Hexagram 34 the hedge stands for a structure that will not yield to force, such as a rule, a contract or a person's standing, and the ram is the reader with enough power to reach it at speed.

Which line is the ruling line of Hexagram 34, Great Power?

Wilhelm treats nine in the fourth place as the ruler of Hexagram 34, Great Power. Line four is the highest of the four yang lines and sits where the solid block meets the two yielding lines above, carrying the hexagram's accumulated force at the point it meets open ground. It is also the only line where the hedge opens instead of catching.

What is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 34?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 34, Great Power, is Hexagram 43, Break-through. Lines two, three and four give Qian, Heaven, and lines three, four and five give Dui, Lake, so the inner figure is Lake above Heaven. Break-through describes a decision announced in public and a weak element finally named, the resolution the pressure in Hexagram 34 already points at.

What does Hexagram 34 mean with no changing lines?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, with no changing lines means the situation is stable in your favor and the reading is entirely about conduct. Nothing moves toward another hexagram, so no turn is forecast. What remains is the Judgement, asking for correctness and persistence, and the Image, telling the junzi not to tread where propriety does not extend. The strength is confirmed; the method is under examination.

What season and month is Hexagram 34 associated with?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, is one of the twelve sovereign or tidal hexagrams and holds the second month of the Chinese lunar year, the weeks around the spring equinox, when the cold is broken but not gone. It sits after Hexagram 11, Peace, with three yang lines, and before Hexagram 43 with five.

Does Hexagram 34, Great Power, mean yes or no to a question?

Hexagram 34, Great Power, answers yes to capability and defers on timing. The four yang lines confirm the means are present and the Judgement blocks nothing. But the line texts punish forward motion at the moment it starts, most sharply at nine at the beginning, where continuing brings misfortune outright. Where the question is whether to push harder, Great Power is closer to a no.