Hexagram 28, line 6
上六Line 6 of Great Excess
Six at the top · 大過 dà guò
爻辭 The line text
過涉滅頂，凶，无咎。The topmost line, 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.
過涉之凶，不可咎也。'Evil follows wading with (extraordinary) boldness (through the stream):'—but (the act) affords no ground for blame.
In plain words
'Wading through until the water covers the head: misfortune, no blame.' The top line is yin at the end of Dui, the lake that drowns the tree in the Great Image. It is weak, and the time of great excess has reached its limit; the only thing left is to wade in, and the wader goes under. Yet the small Image refuses to condemn it: 'it cannot be blamed' (不可咎也). The received reading is of someone who, in an extraordinary crisis, commits past the point of safety because the situation demands it — the misfortune is real and the integrity is also real. The Great Image's 'standing alone without fear' finds its extreme here.
If this line is changing
If you go further into this, you will not come out unscathed, and you may still be right to go; decide with open eyes whether the cause is worth what it will cost you.
Where the line stands
- A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin line that moves when cast.
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
- It belongs to the upper trigram 兌 Dui (the Joyous) (lake).
- It corresponds (應) with line 3: one yin and one yang, the two lines answer each other across the hexagram.
之卦 When this line moves
大過 Great Excess becomes ䷫ 44 姤 Encounter
Wind under heaven: one yin line arriving beneath five yang. An encounter — the woman is strong; do not marry her. Something small and tempting enters; watch it from the start.
What it becomes44 · 姤 EncountergòuThe six lines of 大過 Great Excess
- 初六Six at the beginningwhite rushes · extreme care · weak below
- 九二Nine in the second placewithered poplar sprouts · unlikely pairing · renewal
- 九三Nine in the third placeridgepole sags · too rigid · refusing help
- 九四Nine in the fourth placeridgepole holds · tempered strength · no other attachments
- 九五Nine in the fifth placewithered poplar flowers · brief bloom · neither praise nor blame
- 上六Six at the topin over the head · going under · no blame
Read 大過 Great Excess for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Six at the top of hexagram 28, Great Excess, mean?
- 'Wading through until the water covers the head: misfortune, no blame.' The top line is yin at the end of Dui, the lake that drowns the tree in the Great Image. It is weak, and the time of great excess has reached its limit; the only thing left is to wade in, and the wader goes under. Yet the small Image refuses to condemn it: 'it cannot be blamed' (不可咎也). The received reading is of someone who, in an extraordinary crisis, commits past the point of safety because the situation demands it — the misfortune is real and the integrity is also real. The Great Image's 'standing alone without fear' finds its extreme here.
- What does hexagram 28 become when line 6 changes?
- Great Excess becomes hexagram 44, 姤 Encounter: Wind under heaven: one yin line arriving beneath five yang. An encounter — the woman is strong; do not marry her. Something small and tempting enters; watch it from the start.
- Is line 6 of Great Excess in its correct place?
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).