Da Guo · Great Excess

The meaning

What the name means Da Guo is a great excess: the weight is too much and the beam is bending.

The picture A lake rising over the trees, the wood sunk in water, heavy in the middle and weak at the ends.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about a load beyond the ordinary. The matter is already pressing hard: either find people to share it, or use unusual means for an unusual matter, and be clear that you are not just showing off your strength.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

The pressure is heavy, like a beam about to bend. Do not just carry it: find a fulcrum, and keep the courage to stand alone.

The upper trigram is Lake and the lower is Wind: Lake above, Wind below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

棟橈，利有攸往，亨。

The image

澤滅木，大過；君子以獨立不懼，遁世無悶。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初六藉用白茅，無咎。
2. 九二枯楊生稊，老夫得其女妻，無不利。
3. 九三棟橈，兇。
4. 九四棟隆，吉；有它吝。
5. 九五枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，無咎無譽。
6. 上六過涉滅頂，兇，無咎。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".