Scryway

Hexagram 26

大畜 Dà Chù · Great restraint

Legge: Ta Khu

☶ Mountain (Gèn) above ☰ Heaven (Qián)

Scryway summary

Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.

Great power held and stored. Gather strength and learning before you put them to use.

The judgment

Under the conditions of Ta Khu it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. (If its subject do not seek to) enjoy his revenues in his own family (without taking service at court), there will be good fortune. It will be advantageous for him to cross the great stream.

The image

(The trigram representing) a mountain, and in the midst of it that (representing) heaven, form Ta Khu. The superior man, in accordance with this, stores largely in his memory the words and deeds of former men, to subserve the accumulation of his virtue.

The lines, bottom to top

  1. Bottom line, solid

    The first line, undivided, shows its subject in a position of peril. It will be advantageous for him to stop his advance.

  2. Second line, solid

    The second line, undivided, shows a carriage with the strap under it removed.

  3. Third line, solid

    The third line, undivided, shows its subject urging his way with good horses. It will be advantageous for him to realise the difficulty (of his course), and to be firm and correct, exercising himself daily in his charioteering and methods of defence; then there will be advantage in whatever direction he may advance.

  4. Fourth line, broken

    The fourth line, divided, shows the young bull, (and yet) having the piece of wood over his horns. There will be great good fortune.

  5. Fifth line, broken

    The fifth line, divided, shows the teeth of a castrated hog. There will be good fortune.

  6. Top line, solid

    The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject (as) in command of the firmament of heaven. There will be progress.

Quoted from James Legge (trans.), The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1882. Public domain. The image is from Legge’s Appendix II. Words in parentheses are Legge’s additions.