Hexagram 18 · Gǔ 蠱 Repairing Decay

蠱，元亨，利涉大川。先甲三日，後甲三日。

Gu: great success. It is favorable to cross the great river. Three days before jia, three days after jia.

Zhu Xi defines gu as ruin gone so far that there is work to be done. The firm mountain sits above the soft wind and the two do not meet: those below are meek, those above content to stop, and so things rot. Yet decay at its extreme turns back toward order, hence great success and the crossing of the great river. Jia (甲), first of the ten days, marks the start of an affair. Three days before it falls xin, which he links with making oneself new before the old affair collapses; three days after falls ding, linked with the earnest care that keeps a new start from quickly decaying.

山下有風，蠱。君子以振民育德。

Below the mountain there is wind: Gu. The noble person rouses the people and nurtures virtue.

Wind caught beneath a mountain is Zhu Xi's picture of things going bad until work has to be done. Of all such work, he says, none is greater than these two: rousing the people, which is how others are set in order, and nurturing virtue, which is how one sets oneself in order.

Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading

幹父之蠱，有子，考无咎，厲終吉。

Mending the father's decay. With a son to do it, the late father is without blame. Danger, but in the end good fortune.

Zhu Xi explains 幹 by a tree trunk, which holds up the branches; here it means taking a ruined legacy in hand and setting it upright. Decay is what earlier generations let slip, so every line speaks of a father or mother. At the first line (初六) the rot is still shallow, so a capable son can mend it and clear his late father of blame. Staying alert to the danger leads to the good end.

Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading

幹母之蠱，不可貞。

Mending the mother's decay. It will not do to be rigidly correct and firm.

Strong and central, the second line (九二) answers the soft ruler in the fifth place, so Zhu Xi sees a son putting right what his mother let decay, and doing it with balance. Because a firm line is working on behalf of a soft one, the text warns against hard, unbending correctness. The repair, he says, should go in gently, the way wind enters, which is the quality of the lower trigram.

Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading

幹父之蠱，小有悔，无大咎。

Mending the father's decay. There is a little regret, but no great blame.

Yang in a yang place and off center, the third line (九三) is firm to excess, and repair pushed this hard leaves a little regret behind. Still, Zhu Xi notes, the line stands in its correct place within the gentle lower trigram, so nothing seriously wrong comes of it.

Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading

裕父之蠱，往見吝。

Being lax with the father's decay. To go on like this is to meet humiliation.

A yin line in a yin place, the fourth (六四) lacks the strength to act, and Zhu Xi reads its laxness as treating decay with easygoing tolerance. Left alone, the rot deepens a little every day, so going on in that way meets humiliation. He frames the line as a warning not to be like this. Putting off a repair is itself a choice, and the text names its cost.

Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading

幹父之蠱，用譽。

Mending the father's decay, and earning praise by it.

Soft and central in the ruler's seat, the fifth line (六五) has the strong second line serving it with real virtue. Mending decay with that support, Zhu Xi says, earns a good name. The scene is of a repair carried through by relying on capable help rather than on one's own force.

Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading

不事王侯，高尚其事。

It does not serve king or lord; it holds its own affairs high.

Every other line is busy with repair; the top line (上九) stands above the work and outside it. Zhu Xi sees a firm yang line at the summit, not engaged in the business below, and gives no separate verdict: the outcome and the warning, he says, already lie inside the image. The figure serves no ruler and holds its own pursuits high; what that asks of the reader is left open.