I Ching Da Guo Meaning: Hexagram 28

Draw Da Guo 大過 and in class the sentence I most often hear is: it is over, I made a great error.

The surface does have “excess.” The Tuan’s first sentence already says: 「大過，大者過也。」 The great is yang. The four yang lines in the middle too heavy, the two ends of yin too weak, and the beam will bend. This is yang in excess, not a moral verdict. Sometimes in an extraordinary time it is still beneficial to go forth, it opens. Hear Da Guo as “you are a bad person,” and you will attack yourself when you should hold, and when you should take it in still add stakes the wrong way.

Lake over Wind: the lake floods the wood, the beam is bending

Da Guo is Lake over Wind, Preponderance of the Great. Upper Dui 兌, lake; lower Xun 巽, wood, wind. Lake on wood: water flooding the tree. The image is that kind of excess before covering the head. Nine in the second, third, fourth, fifth all yang; initial six, upper six yin. The beam’s middle too firm, too heavy, the two ends thin. Root and tip weak.

Do not reverse above and below. Water over Wind is Jing 井, Kan above, Xun below: a well, not excess. Lake over Mountain, Xian 咸, Thunder over Wind, Heng 恆: even more do not substitute. Xiao Guo 小過 is Thunder over Mountain, yin in excess, the image of a flying bird: not the same thing as Da Guo’s yang in excess, a bending beam. Treat Da Guo as Xiao Guo and you read the weight pressing a beam as a small miss of a bird flying past. Far apart.

The Xugua says: 「不養則不可動，故受之以大過。」 Without nourishing you cannot move; therefore Da Guo follows. Before it is Yi 頤. Without nourishing, you cannot move; nourished past, or the time arrived when you must move: then you enter Da Guo. Da Guo is extraordinary movement. Ordinary rules sometimes are not enough. Extraordinary is not casual. The beam is already bending, you still pile up: that is nine in the third’s beam bending, unlucky.

The judgment has both ends: 「大過，棟橈。利有攸往，亨。」 The beam bending is the illness. Beneficial to go forth, it opens: the medicine. The beam bent and you can still go, still open, because the firm is in excess yet centered, Xun and joy walking: able to enter, to speak, to send force out from the middle. An extraordinary time can pass. Not every line can pass.

The Tuan writes 「大過之時大矣哉」 very heavy. The time is great: this stretch is not ordinary. Stand independently without fear, withdraw from the world without gloom: the Xiang’s words for the superior person. Lake extinguishing wood, Da Guo. Wood flooded by water, still able to stand yourself, not gloomy. Draw Da Guo and panic with the crowd: the beam bends more.

Career and wealth: first measure the beam, then decide whether to pass

Ask about career and draw Da Guo: overall the load is too heavy. One person carrying a whole team, one project binding a whole company’s life, the books looking very yang and full, the two ends below cannot receive. Then it is not that you cannot do. You cannot do at ordinary volume. Beneficial to go forth: going is an extraordinary policy — stop bleeding, change structure, send a little of those four yangs in the middle out. Not adding another double of a performance target.

The most expensive tuition then is “grind a bit more and it will pass.” Nine in the third, the beam bending, unlucky: true unluck. The beam already bent, still being a hero. Nine in the fourth, the beam rising, luck: the beam arching up, structure right. There is “it,” cause for regret: then growing another branch, another aim, will have cause for regret. Draw Da Guo: first ask whether your beam is bending or rising. Bending, unload weight. Rising, you can pass; do not look for “it” again.

For wealth, Da Guo is like leverage used past. The middle very yang; cash, credit, the body at the two ends very yin. Income can look very large; root and tip cannot receive. Large added leverage, mutual guarantees, staking the household into the company: most hits this hexagram. Initial six, using white thatch as a mat, no blame: in an extraordinary time, the more carefully you pad, the better. White thatch is the softest, most respectful pad. Draw the initial six: contracts, sacrifice, leaving the door — all beneficial to over-cautious, not over-bold.

Upper six, crossing in excess, covering the head, unlucky, no blame. Water already over the head. Unluck is fact; no blame is the place arrived there, sometimes you have to cross. Ask about finance, the body, a partnership, draw the upper six: I almost never advise crossing once more. Turn back if you can turn back. Truly no road: settle what comes after clearly, more human than adding stakes. Do not use “no blame” to comfort yourself into covering the head.

Love: an old man and a young wife can bear; an old woman and a young husband only flowers

Ask about love and draw Da Guo: the relationship is mostly not ordinary. An age gap, a status gap, a load gap, or one of the two pressing the whole relationship on a shoulder. It can complete, and it can bend. Nine in the second and nine in the fifth write these two excesses very plain.

Nine in the second is a withered poplar putting out a shoot, an old man getting a young wife, nothing unbeneficial. A withered poplar, tender shoots again at the root. Old yang matching young yin: can bear. Excess and obtaining the center, so nothing unbeneficial. Draw this line: an extraordinary pairing is not necessarily wrong. Able to bear, raise, live from the root: then you can. Do not first use a worldly mouth to sentence death.

Nine in the fifth is a withered poplar putting out flowers, an old woman getting a young husband, no blame, no praise. A withered poplar flowering, not fruiting. Old yin matching young yang: no blame, also no praise. Excess and not centered. Draw this line: the relationship can get through. Do not expect it to grow a next generation, a next stretch of career, a hall of applause. No blame, no praise: flat. Force it into a legend, and you will walk from putting out flowers to covering the head.

If you are already together, Da Guo reminds you of bearing weight. Who are those four yangs, who the yin at the two ends. Forever only one side as the beam: nine in the third’s bending will come. Send the weight out, then the beam can rise. If you are single and draw Da Guo, a connection may come very heavy, very extraordinary. First ask whether you can receive it. Do not, because “very special,” treat it as definitely nine in the second. Special may also be the upper six.

Workplace people and Da Guo: often an extraordinary alliance, extraordinary taking sides. Stand independently without fear, withdraw from the world without gloom. Pass what should pass; do not follow what should not follow. The white-thatch line used on people: a little more ritual, a little less talk, pad sensitive things well before putting them on the table. In an extraordinary time, slighting costs most.

White thatch can pad; a bending beam is true unluck; covering the head, do not cross again

In class I teach Da Guo’s lines as different states of one beam. Not every bent beam has to tear the house down, and not every beam that can still arch can have another storey piled.

Initial six: 藉用白茅，無咎. Pad offerings with white thatch. Over-cautious, no blame. Draw this line: the matter can be done; the way should be soft, clean, respectful. At the start of the extraordinary, what you most fear is using ordinary coarseness. Look at a contract once more, leave slack leaving the door, say one sentence less.

Nine in the second: 枯楊生稊，老夫得其女妻，無不利. Excess and able to save. Withered and still able to live from the root. Draw this line: an extraordinary combination, extraordinary remedy: you can do. Find the end that can bear. Do not find what can only flower, not fruit.

Nine in the third: 棟橈，凶. The beam bent. The middle over-hard, and responding to the upper six’s excess. Unluck is true unluck. Draw this line: unload weight, change the beam, stop work. Do not write in a deck “we can really carry.” Being able to carry is not this line’s virtue. This line’s virtue is admitting the bend.

Nine in the fourth: 棟隆，吉。有它吝. The beam arches up, luck. The yang in the middle used right. There is “it,” cause for regret: another seeking, another clique, another round: cause for regret. Draw this line: you can push an extraordinary plan out; the heart should not go aside. Luck is in being concentrated; cause for regret is in being mixed.

Upper six: 過涉滅頂，凶，無咎. Crossing water past, water covering the head. Unlucky. No blame: yin at the extreme, sometimes dying for the path, sometimes no other way. Draw this line: first treat as unlucky — stop, save, settle. Do not take no blame as a pass. Two words, crossing in excess: the excess is in “one more step.”

So when people say “I drew Da Guo, be careful of making an error,” ask again: is yang in excess, or the error you are thinking of? Is the beam bending or rising? The extraordinary can pass. Covering the head, do not pass.

In class I have students measure three numbers for Da Guo

First, how heavy the middle. Matters now pressing on you: list the three heaviest. Which can be unloaded, which you must be the beam yourself.

Second, how weak the two ends. Cash, the body, home, the base: which end is already thin. Root and tip weak: filling the two ends is more useful than further motivating the middle.

Third, is this step using thatch, rising, or covering the head. Three answers, three actions: more cautious, can go, must stop. Answer one wrong, and the beam’s fate is wrong.

Not nourished enough, do not move; moved past, enter this hexagram. The previous: I Ching Yi (Nourishment) Meaning | Hexagram 27 How to Read: Nourishment, Mouth and Who Feeds Whom. After excess you cannot excess forever; the next is Kan 坎: I Ching Kan Meaning | Hexagram 29 How to Read: The Abysmal, Walking in Repeated Danger. When closed you also have to hold yourself; compare I Ching Pi Meaning | Hexagram 12 How to Read: Getting Through Standstill. Pi is not opening; Da Guo is too open, too heavy. Two kinds of hardness. The feel of the beam is not the same.

I Ching Da Guo FAQ

Is Da Guo a great error, a great crime?

Not necessarily. The great in excess: yang in excess. It can be responsibility too large, structure too hard, the time extraordinary. Of course, yang in excess also easily does things you would not ordinarily dare; afterward it looks like an error. A reading first looks at structure, then talks of morals. Sentence first and you will not see luck like a rising beam.

A withered poplar putting out a shoot, an old man and a young wife: is it telling people to find someone young?

Not a marriage bureau. The image is excess and able to bear, withered and able to be tender. Age can be the image; it can also be an old structure at work matched with new life. Draw nine in the second: what is asked is whether it can bear, not telling you to practice the words. Nine in the fifth’s putting out flowers, even more do not treat as a blessing to force a match.

Beneficial to go forth: why is nine in the third unlucky?

The judgment is the hexagram’s time: the extraordinary can go. The line is place. Nine in the third over-hard, the beam bending: going is going to break. Nine in the fourth can go; the initial six goes padded; the upper six cannot go again. Judgment and lines have to be read together. Only memorize beneficial to go forth, and you will cross when it is bending.

Crossing in excess, covering the head, also says no blame. Should I do it or not?

First treat as unlucky. If you can not do it, do not. No blame is saying this line’s person is sometimes in duty or situation having to cross; crossed, it is not private heart, so no blame. Covering the head from private heart: do not come touch the two words no blame. In class I would rather students stop than take this sentence to jump in a river.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.