Hexagram 14 as yes or no
Hexagram 14 Great Holdings as a yes-or-no answer
To a yes-or-no question Da You says yes, and with unusual warmth: the judgment is simply 'supreme success,' unconditioned. The sun is above heaven; you have, or will have, the means for what you ask, and the people around you are responsive. The stance it recommends is not caution about whether to act but care about how plenty is carried — the Great Image's sorting of good from bad applies to your own motives too.
The changing line colours the yes. One: yes, if you keep the difficulty in mind from the start. Two: yes, load the wagon and go. Three: yes if what you gain is offered upward; no if you mean to keep it. Four: yes, with deliberate restraint beside whoever is in charge. Five: yes — lead with mutual trust and sufficient dignity. Six: the fullest yes in the hexagram, for the one who yields at the top. A changing line in the lower trigram concerns the use of your means; one in the upper trigram concerns bearing, and even there the answer stays yes.
The hexagram in brief
Fire above heaven: the sun lighting everything. Great holdings and supreme success — one yielding line at the centre holds the respect of all the strong ones.
Great possession asks for generosity and clear judgement: curb the bad, promote the good, and follow what is right.
The judgment
大有：元亨。Tâ Yû indicates that, (under the circumstances which it implies), there will be great progress and success.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 大有 Great Holdings has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningno harmful contact · remember the difficulty · beginning of plenty
- 九二Nine in the second placegreat wagon · bearing the load · accumulated strength
- 九三Nine in the third placeoffering to the king · noble service · small man cannot
- 九四Nine in the fourth placenot swelling · restraint near the ruler · clear discernment
- 六五Six in the fifth placesincerity exchanged · dignity · ruler of the hexagram
- 上九Nine at the tophelp from heaven · nothing not favourable · yielding above the ruler
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 14, Great Holdings, mean yes or no?
- To a yes-or-no question Da You says yes, and with unusual warmth: the judgment is simply 'supreme success,' unconditioned. The sun is above heaven; you have, or will have, the means for what you ask, and the people around you are responsive. The stance it recommends is not caution about whether to act but care about how plenty is carried — the Great Image's sorting of good from bad applies to your own motives too.
- What does Hexagram 14, 大有 Great Holdings, mean?
- Fire above heaven: the sun lighting everything. Great holdings and supreme success — one yielding line at the centre holds the respect of all the strong ones.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).