I Ching Da You Meaning: Hexagram 14

Draw Da You 大有 and the first sentence I most often hear in class is: I have made it, I can harvest.

Harvest: the direction is right, the tone too greedy. Da You is indeed having, abundance, something truly in the hand. What Da You’s “having” most fears is becoming full. Full, and the next hexagram is Qian (Modesty) 謙 coming to take you in. If you do not take yourself in, it will not stay great forever.

First get the image right. Da You is Fire over Heaven, Great Possession. Li 離 above, Qian 乾 below. Fire above, Heaven below. Fire in heaven, light shining far, so it is called great possession. It is not Heaven over Fire, Tong Ren 同人. Tong Ren is Qian above, Li below, fire under heaven, about one heart with people. Da You is fire in heaven, about things returning to you, a career in the open, results being seen. Reverse above and below and you misread “possessing” as “finding companions,” and the whole piece leans.

Why Da You follows Tong Ren

The Xugua says: 「與人同者，物必歸焉，故受之以大有。」 Those who are the same with people, things will return; therefore Da You follows. Before it is Tong Ren. People can be of one heart, then things come over. This line is hard for a reading: Da You is often not one person forcing it out in a room. The stretch of working together before is starting to show. Da You without Tong Ren is more like something picked up. You cannot hold it.

The judgment is only two words: 「大有，元亨。」 Great opening, opening from the start. Among the sixty-four, few judgments this short are this full. Short does not mean no conditions. The Tuan says: 「其德剛健而文明，應乎天而時行，是以元亨。」 Qian below is firm and strong; Li above is culture and brightness; also responding to Heaven, acting in time. Force, brightness, timing: three together, then great opening. Only force, no brightness: becomes domination. Only brightness, no force: becomes empty good looks.

The Xiang says: 「火在天上，大有。君子以遏惡揚善，順天休命。」 Fire in heaven, Da You. The superior person checks the bad and raises the good, follows Heaven and completes the mandate. What you do after having is not showing off more. It is checking the bad, raising the good, completing along this breath Heaven gave you. Completing the mandate is not retiring. It is using this lot right. Draw Da You and still do things that cannot see light: opposite to Li-fire in heaven.

Career and wealth: if you have it, you have to be able to use it and carry it

Ask about career and draw Da You: overall, results can be seen, resources in hand, name starting to come out. Good for harvesting, putting a product in the open, sitting a post in place, clearing the books. Not good for opening another battlefield of unclear origin. Da You is “already have,” not “go grab more.”

For wealth, Da You leans toward regular wealth, performance wealth, money that comes in after being seen. Fire in heaven: the books will not be too dark. What should come in, comes in; what should be reported is also easily seen, so public and private have to be clear. Nine in the second says a great cart to carry: if you have something, you need a cart to carry it. Draw Da You and cash flow is a mess, contracts a mess, not enough people: you have it and cannot carry it. Having you cannot carry becomes disaster in the end, not blessing.

Investment and expansion are possible, but like a great cart, not like a pocket. A great cart is structure: system, help, books, insurance. A pocket is mood: seeing others have, wanting to grab another sum yourself. Da You’s most common defeat is not not having. It is after having, the hand going slack, the mouth full, the person floating.

In class I often ask students one sentence: what you have now, is it what you can carry, or what you can show off? If they can answer, the hexagram is half used right.

Love and people: possessing a person is not turning a person into a collection

Ask about love and draw Da You: there is a result in the relationship — together, recognized, acknowledged outside. If you are single and draw Da You, the conditions of a connection are not bad: the other person’s conditions, occasion, timing are relatively bright, not the sneaky kind. What Da You in love most has to watch is treating the other person as “I have them.” A person is not a thing. Things can return. Once a person is treated as a thing, Li-fire becomes scorching; scorch long and it cracks.

If you are already together, Da You suits pushing the relationship toward public, toward stable: meeting parents, talking marriage, filling in conditions of shared life. It does not suit using “anyway you are already mine” to save care. Having still needs interchange. Six in the fifth speaks of sincerity intersecting, dignity like, luck. Sincerity is truth; interchange is coming and going; dignity is measure. Come and go with sincerity, and also have dignity: then luck. Only dignity, no sincerity: pressure. Only sincerity, no dignity: clinging.

Workplace people and Da You: you easily become the one being looked at. Being looked at, you will be borrowed from, climbed on, envied. Checking the bad and raising the good is very practical: block those who do harm, raise those who put in force. Offending no one is being a village hypocrite, not Da You.

Lines: how to “have”

Da You’s six lines do not each let you open champagne. The way of having wrong, and even no blame comes with conditions.

Initial nine: 無交害，匪咎，艱則無咎. Not yet crossed into harm with people; originally not an excess. But it must be hard, held as difficult, then truly no blame. Draw the initial nine: you may just be starting to have a little, not yet great. What you most fear then is making connections everywhere, showing white everywhere. Less crossing into harm, live as if the days are still tight: that can protect the Da You later.

Nine in the second: 大車以載，有攸往，無咎. Carry with a great cart, go forward, no excess. Nine in the second is centered, yang-hard and able to carry. Draw this line: career can be pushed, but first ask whether you have a cart: a bench, a system, the body, cash. Goods without a cart cannot go far. Have a cart, then it is going somewhere.

Six in the fifth: 厥孚交如，威如，吉. Six in the fifth is this hexagram’s ruling line, yin in the honored place, above and below coming to respond. Its luck is not in domination. It is sincerity and dignity both there. Draw six in the fifth: as a manager, as the client, as the one who takes charge at home — use sincerity to interchange, and also set the rules. Only being brothers will make the situation soft; only being emperor will make it split. Intersecting and dignity: read both sentences together.

Upper nine: 自天祐之，吉無不利. Protection from Heaven, luck, nothing unbeneficial. Many people take this line as windfall from the sky. In class I do not teach it that way. The upper nine is at Li-fire’s extreme; it can get Heaven’s protection because below is firm and strong, the middle has sincerity, and you yourself did not make “having” into full. Draw the upper nine: the matter can go smoothly; still remember: protection is helping you complete, not helping you add another double of chips. Right after Da You is Qian (Modesty). Those who have the great must not fill. This line’s luckiest moment is also the moment you most should take the manner in.

In class, how to hold matters more than how to show

Draw Da You and I have students do three things, none of them romantic.

First, name once what you already have: money, post, relationship, name, body. After naming, see which item you cannot carry. First fill the cart, then think of going forward.

Second, set the scale of being public. Li-fire in heaven is bright by nature. Report tax that should be reported, put a name that should be named, do not blow what should not be blown. Brightness is culture, not an exposure addiction.

Third, actively leave a cut for Qian (Modesty). When credit is reported, bring colleagues’ names; leave cash on the books; say less “without me it cannot be done.” Da You’s next hexagram is not greater still. It is Qian (Modesty). The sequence writes it plain: those who have the great must not fill; therefore Qian (Modesty) follows.

There is also an ugly sentence in class: Da You most easily makes people think they have already passed Tong Ren’s gate. Once people have, they want to decide alone, turning those who did it together into background. Fire is still in heaven, but under heaven no one is willing to be the same with you anymore, and things will start to leave. Holding Da You is actually continuing to be the same. Only this time you have something in hand, so even more you need intersecting and dignity, not only dignity.

Compare: I Ching Tong Ren Meaning | Hexagram 13 How to Read: Fellowship Beyond Your Circle. Without sameness, things do not easily truly return. How not to fill after having: you must read I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate. Qian 乾 is the force of founding; Da You is the result after founding. Read the two together for a fuller picture: I Ching Qian Meaning | Hexagram 1 How to Read: Hidden Dragon to Arrogant Dragon.

I Ching Da You FAQ

Does Da You mean I will definitely get rich?

It is “having,” not necessarily a fortune. Having can be performance, a degree, a post, a relationship that is acknowledged. Ask about speculation, windfall: Da You helps the regular road. Having of an incorrect origin walks against “check the bad and raise the good,” and great opening will be discounted.

I drew Da You and am still short of money. Is the reading wrong?

What you have may not be money. It may be conditions: people, opportunity, name, timing. The great cart has not come; the goods have already arrived. First fill the structure of carrying, then money can follow. You can also look at the line. Having of the initial nine and having of six in the fifth are a stage apart.

Does Da You suit signing, opening a business?

It suits making existing results into a name: signing, hanging a plaque, going public, harvesting. Brand new, unfamiliar, opening before you have even been the same with companions: more like skipping Tong Ren. Have a bench, have a finished product, then open: that looks like a great cart to carry.

Why after Da You must I look at Qian (Modesty)?

Because the Xugua wrote the sentence in stone: those who have the great must not fill. Draw Da You and keep filling, and the next stage’s homework is still Qian (Modesty) — only then you may already have overflowed once. Modest first is saving tuition. Being taken in by Qian (Modesty) is making up tuition.

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