Hexagram 18 for love
Hexagram 18 Corruption in love and relationships
Gu is wind at the foot of the mountain, pliancy below and stillness above, and the Tuan says that is how things spoil: something yielding under something rigid, left untouched until it breeds worms. In a relationship it points to accumulated neglect — habits, silences and old grievances that no one caused on purpose and no one has cleared up. The judgment is nonetheless 'great success', with the image of crossing the great river: the trouble can be mended, but only by someone willing to do the work, and with care 'three days before and three days after' the turning point.
The lines cast the repair as a child mending a parent's errors, and the stance carries over: take on the other person's mess without blaming them for it (line one), be gentle where the fault lies with someone vulnerable (line two), accept that zeal is a smaller fault than tolerance (lines three and four). A changing top line asks whether the mending is yours to do at all.
The hexagram in brief
Wind below the mountain: stagnation that has bred corruption, like a bowl of worms. Great success for the one who steps in to repair what earlier generations spoiled.
Diagnose carefully, act, then follow up; mending the inherited mess is honourable work.
The judgment
蠱：元亨，利涉大川。先甲三日，後甲三日。Kû indicates great progress and success (to him who deals properly with the condition represented by it). There will be advantage in (efforts like that of) crossing the great stream. (He should weigh well, however, the events of) three days before the turning point, and those (to be done) three days after it.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 蠱 Corruption has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningthe father's decay · taking over · danger then good
- 九二Nine in the second placethe mother's decay · not too rigid · the middle way
- 九三Nine in the third placetoo forceful · small regret · no great blame
- 六四Six in the fourth placeindulgence · letting it slide · regret ahead
- 六五Six in the fifth placepraise · virtue and a helper · the ruler's repair
- 上九Nine at the topnot serving · higher business · a model aim
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 18, Corruption, a good sign for love?
- Gu is wind at the foot of the mountain, pliancy below and stillness above, and the Tuan says that is how things spoil: something yielding under something rigid, left untouched until it breeds worms. In a relationship it points to accumulated neglect — habits, silences and old grievances that no one caused on purpose and no one has cleared up. The judgment is nonetheless 'great success', with the image of crossing the great river: the trouble can be mended, but only by someone willing to do the work, and with care 'three days before and three days after' the turning point.
- What does Hexagram 18, 蠱 Corruption, mean?
- Wind below the mountain: stagnation that has bred corruption, like a bowl of worms. Great success for the one who steps in to repair what earlier generations spoiled.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).