大過
dà guò

28. Preponderance of the Great

䷛
Above
兌 duì
The Joyous, Lake
Below
巽 xùn
The Gentle, Wind, Wood

This hexa­gram con­sists of four strong lines in­side and two weak lines out­side. When the strong are out­side and the weak in­side, all is well and there is noth­ing out of bal­ance, noth­ing ex­tra­or­di­nary in the sit­u­a­tion. Here, how­ev­er, the op­po­site is the case. The hexa­gram rep­re­sents a beam that is thick and heavy in the mid­dle but too weak at the ends. This is a con­di­tion that can­not last; it must be changed, must pass, or mis­for­tune will re­sult.

The Judgement

Preponderance of the great.
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
Success.

The weight of the great is ex­ces­sive. The load is too heavy for the strength of the sup­ports. The ridge­pole, on which the whole roof rests, sags to the break­ing point, be­cause its sup­port­ing ends are too weak for the load they bear. It is an ex­cep­tion­al time and sit­u­a­tion; there­fore ex­tra­or­di­nary mea­sures are de­mand­ed. It is nec­es­sary to find a way of tran­si­tion as quick­ly as pos­si­ble, and to take ac­tion. This promis­es suc­cess. For al­though the strong el­e­ment is in ex­cess, it is in the mid­dle, that is, at the cen­ter of grav­i­ty, so that a rev­o­lu­tion is not to be feared. Noth­ing is to be achieved by forcible mea­sures. The prob­lem must be solved by gen­tle pen­e­tra­tion to the mean­ing of the sit­u­a­tion (as is sug­gest­ed by the at­tribute of the inner tri­gram, Sun); then the change-over to other con­di­tions will be suc­cess­ful. It de­mands real su­pe­ri­or­i­ty; there­fore the time when the great pre­pon­der­ates is a mo­men­tous time.

The Image

The lake rises above the trees:
The image of preponderance of the great.
Thus the superior man, when he stands alone,
Is unconcerned,
And if he has to renounce the world,
He is undaunted.

Ex­tra­or­di­nary times when the great pre­pon­der­ates are like flood­times when the lake rises over the tree­tops. But such con­di­tions are tem­po­rary. The two tri­grams in­di­cate the at­ti­tude prop­er to such ex­cep­tion­al times: the sym­bol of the tri­gram Sun is the tree, which stands firm even though it stands alone, and the at­tribute of Tui is joy­ous­ness, which re­mains un­daunt­ed even if it must re­nounce the world.

The Lines

Six at the beginning means:
To spread white rushes underneath.
No blame.

When a man wish­es to un­der­take an en­ter­prise in ex­tra­or­di­nary times, he must be ex­tra­or­di­nar­i­ly cau­tious, just as when set­ting a heavy thing down on the floor, one takes care to put rush­es under it, so that noth­ing will break. This cau­tion, though it may seem ex­ag­ger­at­ed, is not a mis­take. Ex­cep­tion­al en­ter­pris­es can­not suc­ceed un­less ut­most cau­tion is ob­served in their be­gin­nings and in the lay­ing of their foun­da­tions.

Nine in the second place means:
A dry poplar sprouts at the root.
An older man takes a young wife.
Everything furthers.

Wood is near water; hence the image of an old poplar sprout­ing at the root. This means an ex­tra­or­di­nary re­an­i­ma­tion of the process­es of growth. In the same way, an ex­tra­or­di­nary sit­u­a­tion aris­es when an older man mar­ries a young girl who suits him. De­spite the un­usu­al­ness of the sit­u­a­tion, all goes well.

From the point of view of pol­i­tics, the mean­ing is that in ex­cep­tion­al times one does well to join with the lowly, for this af­fords a pos­si­bil­i­ty of re­new­al.

Nine in the third place means:
The ridgepole sags to the breaking point.
Misfortune.

This in­di­cates a type of man who in times of pre­pon­der­ance of the great in­sists on push­ing ahead. He ac­cepts no ad­vice from oth­ers, and there­fore they in turn are not will­ing to lend him sup­port. Be­cause of this the bur­den grows, until the struc­ture of things bends or breaks. Plung­ing will­ful­ly ahead in times of dan­ger only has­tens the cat­a­stro­phe.

Nine in the fourth place means:
The ridgepole is braced. Good fortune.
If there are ulterior motives, it is humiliating.

Through friend­ly re­la­tions with peo­ple of lower rank, a re­spon­si­ble man suc­ceeds in be­com­ing mas­ter of the sit­u­a­tion. But if, in­stead of work­ing for the res­cue of the whole, he were to mis­use his con­nec­tions to ob­tain per­son­al power and suc­cess, it would lead to hu­mil­i­a­tion.

Nine in the fifth place means:
A withered poplar puts forth flowers.
An older woman takes a husband.
No blame. No praise.

A with­ered poplar that flow­ers ex­hausts its en­er­gies there­by and only has­tens its end. An older woman may marry once more, but no re­new­al takes place. Every­thing re­mains bar­ren. Thus, though all the ameni­ties are ob­served, the net re­sult is only the anom­aly of the sit­u­a­tion.

Ap­plied to pol­i­tics, the metaphor means that if in times of in­se­cu­ri­ty we give up al­liance with those below us and keep up only the re­la­tion­ships we have with peo­ple of high­er rank, an un­sta­ble sit­u­a­tion is cre­at­ed.

Six at the top means:
One must go through the water.
It goes over one’s head.
Misfortune. No blame.

Here is a sit­u­a­tion in which the un­usu­al has reached a cli­max. One is coura­geous and wish­es to ac­com­plish one’s task, no mat­ter what hap­pens. This leads into dan­ger. The water rises over one’s head. This is the mis­for­tune. But one in­curs no blame in giv­ing up one’s life that the good and the right may pre­vail. There are things that are more im­por­tant than life.