Hexagram 26 as yes or no

Hexagram 26 Great Accumulation as a yes-or-no answer

great accumulationrestraintstored power

Da Chu answers a yes-or-no question with 'yes, but not yet, and not before you are full'. The judgment is favourable — steadiness, public service, crossing the great river — but the hexagram's whole structure is a mountain sitting on top of heaven, and five of its six lines are about restraint. The thing you are asking about is worth doing and will be done with the accumulated strength of a long preparation; the question is whether that preparation is finished.

The changing line answers that question. Line one and line two both say stop: there is danger, the carriage cannot move, and pressing on would be forcing it. Line three is a conditional yes — go, but keep practising and expect difficulty. Line four and line five are addressed to the one doing the restraining: yes to checking the matter early, yes to taking away its cause instead of fighting it. The top line is an unqualified yes; the road is open and the stored strength may finally be spent.

The hexagram in brief

Heaven inside the mountain: great power held and stored. Firm correctness brings success; serve in public rather than eating at home, and the great river can be crossed.

Accumulate knowledge and strength by studying the past, restrain impulse until it is ripe, then act boldly.

The judgment

大畜：利貞，不家食吉，利涉大川。

Under the conditions of Tâ Khû it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. (If its subject do not seek to) enjoy his revenues in his own family (without taking service at court), there will be good fortune. It will be advantageous for him to cross the great stream.

Which line changed?

A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 大畜 Great Accumulation has its own page:

The same hexagram for

Love and relationships Work and career

Questions

Does hexagram 26, Great Accumulation, mean yes or no?: Da Chu answers a yes-or-no question with 'yes, but not yet, and not before you are full'. The judgment is favourable — steadiness, public service, crossing the great river — but the hexagram's whole structure is a mountain sitting on top of heaven, and five of its six lines are about restraint. The thing you are asking about is worth doing and will be done with the accumulated strength of a long preparation; the question is whether that preparation is finished.
What does Hexagram 26, 大畜 Great Accumulation, mean?: Heaven inside the mountain: great power held and stored. Firm correctness brings success; serve in public rather than eating at home, and the great river can be crossed.

Cast a reading Hexagram 26 in full

Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).