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28) Daguo: Excess of the Great

Hexagram:

• C: Moisture destroys wood in excess; superior people stand alone without fear, and leave society without distress.

• L: When the great is excessive, the ridgepole bends. It is good to go somewhere; that is developmental.

• E: Following in desires, delighting in externals, inability to control strength.

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Lines:

1 Yin:

• L: Spreading white reeds; no fault.

• E:  Being weak and having an inferior position, excessive weakness is extreme prudence. When one does not presume to go ahead of others there is naturally no fault of great excess. This is being small but nonetheless excessive.

2 Yang:

• L: A withered willow produces sprouts; an old man gets a girl for a wife. Altogether beneficial.

• E: This is using flexibility so firmness does not go too far.

3 Yang:

• L: The ridgepole bends; misfortune.

• E: Losing the golden elixir after it has been attained, is excessive use of strength.

4 Yang:

• L: The ridgepole is raised; good fortune. There is another shame.

• E: When yin and yang join, greatness is able to be small. At this point of energy harmonization, if one is too yielding, it will damage firmness, making completion of the path impossible. This is firmness using flexibility appropriately and not excessively.

5 Yang:

• L: A withered willow produces flowers, an old woman gets a young man for a husband: no blame, no praise.

• E: If strength is balanced, not deluded by external influences, there is no blame. After filling the belly, if one cannot empty the mind and rest in the center, there is no praise. This is the excess of the great in the sense of being strong and continuing to apply full strength.

6 Yin:

• L: Excess reaching the peak of destruction is unfortunate; there is no blame on other people.

• E: Ignorance of the medicinal substances of the firing process is arbitrarily straying from its path. Deviating from the firing process has worse consequences for those who have progressed further. This is the excess of the great in the sense of being weak and entertaining illusions.