大过
GUA 28 · DA4 GUO
GREATNESS IN EXCESS
Overall Image (大象)
The lake rises over the trees
Greatness in excess
The noble young one, accordingly, stands alone and undaunted
And steps back from the world without sorrow▼
Overall Image (大象)
The lake rises over the trees
Greatness in excess
The noble young one, accordingly, stands alone and undaunted
And steps back from the world without sorrow
Rain dancers call down heaven itself. Now the sky has a weight few prepared for. Orchards and structures under the lake, cries become bubbles below: this is more than a little over the top. The great passes through, the local world is almost gone. This is not wrath or fury, not divine justice or plan, only a thoughtless, ham-handed fist of a world much bigger than us, far too great to care for the parts of the whole. Here is an adventure to which one will not need to travel. There’s just time to collect a few wits, to step up and get nimbly moving, no time for fret or regrets. The losses won’t be so for long, once the past is washed away. An overwhelming finality helps.
Main Judgment (Greatness in Excess) (卦辞)
The ridgepole bends
Worthwhile to have somewhere to go
Fulfillment▼
Main Judgment (Greatness in Excess) (卦辞)
The ridgepole bends
Worthwhile to have somewhere to go
Fulfillment
Too much of existence comes to visit one place, so you may be crowded out soon. Nothing of this will ask you for patience. The wind with driving rain soaks the old thatched roof through, the ridgepole flexes under strain. Meetings like this with the powers that be, or the peaks of the human experience, seem to avoid all the boredom well enough. But when they crest, expect to relocate quickly and have somewhere to go in mind. This glut of compelling experience might be avoidable, given some serious speed, a way out and a clear path to high ground. The wise will make room by letting it move them. The tough are already long gone. And who knows? Plan B in prospect is seldom superior; in retrospect, it is always the good one, or the hidden plan of the spirits and gods, that we just could not see until we awakened. What this is will change what we are. This is critical mass and an exigent transit. Now we will not stay the same even more than before. If you step in this river twice you are done. Above and beyond is the call, to life in interesting times. Have we then overestimated ourselves and degrees of commitment? Now’s the time to take a deep breath and go.
Key Words (关键词)
Inundation, saturation, surcharge, extremity, crisis, emergency, stress, pressure▼
Key Words (关键词)
Inundation, saturation, surcharge, extremity, crisis, emergency, stress, pressure
Encroachment, transgression, overload, live load, hurried adapting, resilience Surpassing, overwhelming, extraordinary, too much; going beyond, transition Peak experience, stretching limits, pushing envelopes; more than bargained for Excess, unleashing, abnormality, heavy matters, under strain, humbling events Going far beyond, greatly transcending, greeting something greater than yourself
Structure & Connections
Structure Class
No Family
This classification indicates the hexagram's role in the 12 Sovereign Cycle (Earthly Branches) or its structural family.
Astrology
note:Gemini Ascending, Mutable Air
element:Air
Tarot
card:Queen of Swords
suit:Swords
Qabalah
note:Briah of Yetzirah
sphere:Briah
The Lines
11st • Yang(Fan Yao* 43.1: vigorously advancing toes, going not successful)
For cushions, using white thatch grass
Make no mistakes*▼
1
1st • Yang(Fan Yao* 43.1: vigorously advancing toes, going not successful)
For cushions, using white thatch grass
Make no mistakes*
28.1x Cushioning with white thatch grass:
The flexible is on the bottom
He offers a fine, little sacrifice, that the world might treat him more gently. Sweet incense wafts through the room and his offering mats of woven, white mao grass cushion his delicate gifts. It is timely, now, to show his great care and to act with a great carefulness. It’s hard to think that these little things might truly alter the course of great events. We do not yet know just how much protection these little white mats will afford if and when the floodwaters rise over the threshold and the roof comes crashing down. But isn’t it odd that the mats are made out of roof thatch? Maybe he prays for less interesting times than those that Greatness in Excess promise to give. Maybe he feels lowly and weak because life has not been as easy or kind. But under this roof is no place to hide: one wants a heads-up caution here, not the fussy kind.
22nd • YangThe withered poplar sprouts a new shoot
An older gentleman finds himself a maiden to marry
Nothing cannot be turned to advantage▼
2
2nd • YangThe withered poplar sprouts a new shoot
An older gentleman finds himself a maiden to marry
Nothing cannot be turned to advantage
28.2x (An) older gentleman (and) maiden companion:
Going beyond with each other’s support
Wonders will cease, but not just yet. His springtime might have been a bit springier, but this thought is not slowing him down. Perhaps he is even stepping more lively now that the end is in sight and he runs out of time. The old prune is a plum again, the old dog has picked up a new trick. And, if our young lady can bring our old goat back to life, there may yet be some children or heirs. In times such as these, the real priorities show, the kind which reach far past our wisdoms. Even now, life is tough stuff to stop. Now, who would have thought that these sublime stirrings were some kind of force majeure? We should not be quick to judge Eros a light and frivolous force. This kind of force insists in the subtlest ways, but it authors the species and drives our evolution by wanting what it wants. These waters run deep in our beings.
33rd • YangThe ridgepole is deformed
Ominous▼
3
3rd • YangThe ridgepole is deformed
Ominous
28.3x The ridgepole’s deformity becomes trouble:
It is not enough to assume support
He kept trying to get his friends to call him an architect, but they only wanted to use the word “poet.” Living and then later learning is one way to move through life, but one picks up a lot to be later unlearned. Living to learn is another: for folks living thus, even the stones are good teachers. Living alone in one’s mind is a third way to live, and for these, misfortune is often the way fortune works. It is now time to pay the tuition for a crash course in applied engineering: deflection, bending and failure in simple beams under live loads in worst-case scenarios. The pressure grows nearly unbearable. The stress and strain is more urgent than an omen and more signal than a sign. Failure is not a slow motion process. The acceleration of gravity is constant, so our poet’s acceleration may be the only variable. Move to higher ground, quickly.
44th • YangThe ridgepole holds up
Promising
To take much more, then deficiency▼
4
4th • YangThe ridgepole holds up
Promising
To take much more, then deficiency
28.4x The ridgepole’s holding up holds promise:
Not a failing onto those below
Though it sags when the sky grows too heavy, the beam gives fair warning this time. It seems bent enough to warrant assessment. A provisional brace or repair might, or might not, permit a rest or long absence. Some stresses accumulate, some go away, but both of these happen in time, and time plays the odds, and odds mean margins of safety. Failure and bending are two different states: failure will happen just once, but bending in stress is the best time to study a structure. When one part reveals a weakness, remember you work with a system, not just a pile of boards: the trouble could be in the groundwork. If the margin of safety is set at the norm, then normally the roof will not fall in and kill you. You will want this to not happen more than half of the time. You only want to be killed by extraordinary events, so measure this well.
55th • Yang(Fan Yao* 32.5: continuing in character, her promise, his problem)
The withered poplar* bears flowers
An older lady finds herself a young gentleman to marry
No blame, no praise▼
5
5th • Yang(Fan Yao* 32.5: continuing in character, her promise, his problem)
The withered poplar* bears flowers
An older lady finds herself a young gentleman to marry
No blame, no praise
28.5x The withered poplar bears flowers:
(But) how could this last?
* (An) older lady (and) young male companion:
So inviting (to) condemnation
Good for our lovely, plucky old lady! With wrinkle goop and war paint, and some would say not enough else, she goes on the hunt and brings home a healthy, young buck. How discreet can you be when you kick up your heels like that? There will be no children of course, and no praise from the horrified gossips, and one day he will move on somewhat wiser. In great times life knows its allies, sometimes by warmth. The value of such an arrangement is not so commonly known, but its worth is clear to those so arranged. Why even care what a gossip will think? How could this last? Can it be more than one final fling if the flower saps the tree’s strength and renewal is not from the roots? A last hurrah or maybe hooray! Why not ask this one instead: Who dares to measure the time? And is the eternal really all that it’s rumored to be?
6Top • YangToo much to wade into, immersing one’s head
Brutal
Make no mistakes▼
6
Top • YangToo much to wade into, immersing one’s head
Brutal
Make no mistakes
28.6x Too much to wade into comes into bad luck:
But not deserving blame
You cannot get more surrounded by greatness than when the great stream crosses your village. Confronted by rising waters, already over his head, he has no time to plead for his fortune or fate. This will no doubt be a moving experience. And the choice to be made is so simple: to keep life’s temple afloat, or feed it to the fishes. If he has not learned how to swim, or build a boat out of wishes, he has just failed his last and best test. His passing will at least be dramatic and maybe even heroic. But life in the long run will profit without him, as folks of the future grow flippers which are also useful as feet. Imagine this is a speed learning course, with current events getting swifter. He is out of his depth, or in too deep, in way over his head, and in the deep end of the gene pool. This is what he’s made of: there is no blame.
Reference in Original Text & Resources
This content is derived from Bradford Hatcher's THE BOOK OF CHANGES: Yijing, Word By Word.
Original text for Hexagram 28 begins on Page 228-236.
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