EN (English)
䷑
Hexagram 18 of 64
Work on the Decayed
蠱 · Gǔ
The character shows a bowl with worms in it: something left standing too long. The hexagram is about repairing inherited decay, and it is unusually concerned with family.
repair
inheritance
decay
renewal
- King Wen number
- 18 of 64
- Above
- ☶ Gèn · Mountain
- Below
- ☴ Xùn · Wind
- Composition
- Mountain over Wind
- Lines, bottom to top
- Broken · solid · solid · broken · broken · solid
- Chinese
- 蠱 · Gǔ
The Judgment
The source. It gets through. It helps to cross the great water. Three days before the turning point, three days after.
Repair is treated as a major undertaking, worth the crossing. The days before and after are a warning about preparation and follow-through.
The Image
Wind at the foot of the mountain: Decay. So the noble person rouses the people and nurtures their character.
Stagnation is answered by stirring things up. Wind trapped under a mountain goes stale, and so do institutions.
What it means
Gu is the hexagram of inherited mess. Its character depicts a vessel with vermin in it, food left until it has bred something, and the classic uses it for anything that has quietly gone bad while nobody was attending to it.
What is distinctive is that four of the six lines put the damage on a parent. This is the book's most direct treatment of generational inheritance: the state, the household or the trade arrives in your hands already spoiled, and the question is whether you will do the unglamorous work of setting it right.
The classic is encouraging about that work and honest about its texture. The first line says the repair frees the person who caused the damage from blame, which is a generous view of what fixing something accomplishes. The second warns that some inherited damage cannot be attacked head-on. The third accepts a little overzealousness. The fourth, the only unfavourable line, is the one where the damage is simply tolerated.
The Judgment frames it as a real undertaking, worth crossing the great water for, with three days of preparation before the turning point and three of consolidation after. Repair is a project, not a gesture.
In a reading
Work on What Has Been Spoiled as an answer means the problem predates you and the situation is fixable. The hexagram is optimistic; it simply expects effort.
Its counsel is to begin, to prepare properly, and to match your manner to the kind of damage you are addressing. Its one warning is against tolerance: living around the rot rather than clearing it produces regret, and the rot continues.
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.
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Nine at the top
He does not serve kings and princes. He sets himself higher aims.
Standing outside the whole structure. Not everyone owes the repair, and the classic allows the exit at the top.
-
Six in the fifth place
Setting right what the father spoiled. One earns praise.
The ruling line. The work done well and recognised, which the hexagram treats as the normal outcome.
-
Six in the fourth place
Tolerating what the father spoiled. To go on brings regret.
Living with the damage instead of repairing it. The only line here with a plain negative verdict.
-
Nine in the third place
Setting right what the father spoiled. A little regret, no great blame.
Overdoing it slightly. The classic accepts imperfect zeal as the cost of getting the job done.
-
Nine in the second place
Setting right what the mother spoiled. One must not be too firm about it.
The same work with a different manner. Some inherited damage cannot be corrected by confrontation.
-
Six at the beginning
Setting right what the father spoiled. If there is a son to do it, the father is free of blame. Danger, and in the end good fortune.
The repair redeems the person who caused the damage as well as the situation. The danger is named and not avoided.
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