The Book of Changes · Da Guo

Hexagram 28: Preponderance of the Great

Lake (still water held in a hollow) over Wind (wind, and wood growing)

A ridgepole bending under the weight it carries. Something has grown too heavy in the middle and too weak at the ends, and the tradition says extraordinary times allow extraordinary measures.

The image

The lake rises over the trees. The reading is that a person stands alone without fear and withdraws from the world without regret, because the situation genuinely requires it.

Lake, above

Openness, pleasure, and what is said out loud.

Wind, below

Penetration, patience, and what works by not stopping.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1White rushes laid down underneath. Extreme care at the start, and no fault in the caution.
2. Line 2A dry poplar putting out shoots at the root. An unlikely pairing, and it works.
3. Line 3The ridgepole sags to the point of breaking. Weight in the wrong place.
4. Line 4The ridgepole braced. Good, and other motives in the bracing spoil it.
5. Line 5A withered poplar in flower. Nothing wrong in it, and nothing to praise either.
6. Line 6Wading on until the water closes over your head. Misfortune, and no blame: the cause was worth it.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 28 is Gate 28, The Game Player.