Four strong lines crowding a weak frame: a hexagram of great excess. The ridgepole bends, yet there is a way through for those who move with balance.
Xun ☴, wind and wood, whose quality is entering (入), lies beneath Dui ☱, the lake, whose quality is joy (說). Zhu Xi reads 大 as yang: four yang lines fill the middle of the figure, more than the weak ends can carry, like a ridgepole bending under its load. Since the central lines hold balance and the trigrams are gentle and glad, a road forward still remains.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
大過，棟橈，利有攸往，亨。
Da Guo: the ridgepole bends. It is favorable to have somewhere to go. Success.
Here 大, “great,” means yang, as Zhu Xi explains: four yang lines crowd the middle of the figure, more than the frame can hold, and the weak yin lines at either end cannot bear the load. That is the image of a ridgepole bending. Yet he still finds a road through it. The second and fifth lines are central, the lower trigram is gentle and the upper glad, so there is a way that can be taken, and going forward goes through. Excess, in this reading, is a weight to be carried with balance, not a reason to stand still.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
澤滅木，大過。君子以獨立不懼，遯世无悶。
The lake submerges the trees: Da Guo. The noble person stands alone without fear and withdraws from the world without gloom.
Water rising until it drowns the trees is a picture of something gone far past its normal measure. Zhu Xi treats the two attitudes as the conduct proper to such a time: standing alone without fear, and stepping back from the world without dejection. Great excess here also names conduct beyond the ordinary.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
藉用白茅，无咎。
White rushes are used for the mat beneath. No blame.
Laying things down on a mat of clean white rushes is an act of great care, and Zhu Xi notes that white rushes are a pure thing. The first line (初六), soft and at the very bottom of the yielding trigram, is cautious beyond what is needed. In a time of excess, that is the kind of excess that brings no blame.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
枯楊生稊，老夫得其女妻，无不利。
New roots grow from a withered willow. An old man gets a young wife. Nothing that is not favorable.
Where yang begins to be excessive, the second line (九二) sits right next to the yin line below it. Zhu Xi glosses 稊 as roots: a dried-out willow that grows new roots at its base will come alive again above. In the same way, he says, an old man who takes a young wife can still bring new life into being. The excess is renewed from below, and the text finds nothing unfavorable.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
棟橈，凶。
The ridgepole bends. Misfortune.
The two middle lines, the third and fourth, make up the ridgepole of the figure. The third (九三) is a firm line in a firm place, hard on hard, and so cannot carry the weight; the beam bends, and the text calls it misfortune. Excess met with more excess has no give in it.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
棟隆，吉。有它吝。
The ridgepole arches upward. Good fortune. If there is something else, humiliation.
Strong, but placed in a soft position, the fourth line (九四) has its excess tempered, and the ridgepole arches up instead of bending down. Zhu Xi adds a caution about its partner below, the soft first line. Leaning on that softness to balance itself would tip it into too much softness, which is the “something else” that would bring humiliation.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，无咎无譽。
Flowers open on a withered willow. An old woman gets a young husband. No blame, and no praise.
Zhu Xi's note is brief: this line is the reverse of the second in image and verdict alike. The fifth line (九五) is yang at the height of excess and sits beside the top line, a yin line that has also gone to the extreme. Read as the reverse of the second line, flowers at the top of a dead tree renew nothing below, and this marriage brings no new life, so there is neither blame nor praise.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
過涉滅頂，凶，无咎。
Wading too deep, the water closes over the head. Misfortune; no blame.
At the far end of excess, the top line (上六) is soft and lacks the strength to get across, and the water closes over its head: misfortune. Yet Zhu Xi says that by the measure of what is right there is no blame, and he likens it to giving one's life to fulfill humaneness. The text separates the outcome from the worth of the act.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.
Characters corrected in this hexagram — judgment: 天過棟撓 → 大過棟橈