大過
“Great Exceeding” — King Wen #28
Excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures.
The Judgment 卦辞
棟橈；利有攸往，亨。
Da Guo suggests to us a beam that is weak. There will be advantage in moving (under its conditions) in any direction whatever; there will be success.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
藉用白茅，無咎。
The first SIX, divided, shows one placing mats of the white m?o grass under things set on the ground. There will be no error.
枯楊生稊，老夫得其女妻；無不利。
The second NINE, undivided, shows a decayed willow producing shoots, or an old husband in possession of his young wife. There will be advantage in every way.
棟橈，凶。
The third NINE, undivided, shows a beam that is weak. There will be evil.
棟隆，吉；有它，吝。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows a beam curving upwards. There will be good fortune. If (the subject of it) looks for other (help but that of line one), there will be cause for regret.
枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，無咎無譽。
The fifth NINE, undivided, shows a decayed willow producing flowers, or an old wife in possession of her young husband. There will be occasion neither for blame nor for praise.
過涉滅頂；凶，無咎。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject with extraordinary (boldness) wading through a stream, till the water hides the crown of his head. There will be evil, but no ground for blame.
Reading the Picture
Hexagram 28 places wind (巽) beneath lake (兑) —gentle influence working inward below, joy lifting what it touches above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Great Exceeding”:excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
Questions About Hexagram 28
What does 大過 (dà guò) mean?
Hexagram 28 of the I Ching is named 大過 (dà guò), usually rendered "Great Exceeding" in English editions. Its figure pairs wind (巽) below with lake (兑) above.
Which trigrams form hexagram 28?
兑 (Lake) sits above and 巽 (Wind) sits below — the classical picture is gentle influence working inward beneath joy lifting what it touches.
How is hexagram 28 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 28 gives hexagram 27 — 頤 (Swallowing). Turned upside down, the figure is itself — one of the four symmetrical hexagrams. Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 1 — 乾 (Force).
Ask your own question
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1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.