EN (English)
䷙
Hexagram 26 of 64
The Taming Power of the Great
大畜 · Dà Xù
Heaven contained inside a mountain. Great creative energy under real restraint, which the classic reads not as suppression but as accumulation.
accumulation
restraint
study
held-back power
- King Wen number
- 26 of 64
- Above
- ☶ Gèn · Mountain
- Below
- ☰ Qián · Heaven
- Composition
- Mountain over Heaven
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · solid · solid · broken · broken · solid
- Chinese
- 大畜 · Dà Xù
The Judgment
It rewards holding to the course. Not eating at home brings good fortune. It helps to cross the great water.
Not eating at home means taking public service, or at least eating at someone else's table. What has accumulated is meant to be spent outside the household.
The Image
Heaven within the mountain: the Taming Power of the Great. So the noble person learns many sayings of antiquity and deeds of the past, and thereby builds up character.
The clearest endorsement of study in the book. What you store while you are held back is what you have when you are released.
What it means
Da Xu is the counterpart of hexagram 9, and the difference is scale and quality of the holding. There, one small line delayed a great force. Here, mountain contains heaven: real capacity holding real power, deliberately and for long enough to matter.
The classic reads this as storage. The Image is unusually direct about method: learn the old sayings and the recorded deeds, because what you take in while you are held back becomes what you have when you are let go. Restraint is not a pause in the work, it is a different phase of it.
The two middle-upper lines are the hexagram's most quoted. A young bull gets a board across its horns before they are dangerous, and a boar is gelded rather than having its tusks pulled. Both describe managing force at the point where the management is easy, and both prefer redirecting to opposing. The classic thinks this is a general principle and not merely animal husbandry.
The top line breaks the containment open. The way of heaven stands clear, and everything that accumulated inside the mountain finally has somewhere to go.
In a reading
Great Restraint as an answer says the hold-up is substantial and productive. You are being kept from something, and the interval is not wasted.
Its counsel is to study, prepare, and build up what you will need. If the question involves managing someone else's force, the fourth and fifth lines both recommend early, structural handling rather than confrontation. The obstruction ends, and the hexagram expects it to end well.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Nine at the top
One reaches the open thoroughfare of heaven. Success.
The restraint ends. Everything that was held back is released with somewhere to go.
-
Six in the fifth place
The tusk of a gelded boar. Good fortune.
The tusk is still there and no longer dangerous. Redirecting force at its source rather than fighting it at the point of contact.
-
Six in the fourth place
A guard board on a young bull's horns. Great good fortune.
Restraint applied early, before the horns grow. Prevention at the point where it is still easy.
-
Nine in the third place
A good horse follows others. It helps to be aware of the difficulty and hold on. Practise driving and defence daily. There is somewhere to go.
The restraint is lifting. The line puts the interval to work in daily drill rather than treating the release as a finish line.
-
Nine in the second place
The axle housing comes off the wagon.
Immobilised without damage. The wagon is intact and going nowhere, which is a workable state.
-
Nine at the beginning
Danger is at hand. It helps to stop.
Restraint accepted immediately. The first line does not argue with the obstacle.
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