剝Bo · Splitting Apart
In one sentence
The foundation is being hollowed out bit by bit. This is no time to act.
The bad forces are rising, and good things are peeling away layer by layer. The situation is against you. Don't go forward. Stop, steady your foundation, and protect the one thing at the core. Once the worst has passed, the recovery begins.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- The situation is against you and still heading down: the people and conditions that support you are falling away layer by layer. Do not fight now, do not expand, do not force your way onto a new track. Stop, hold on to your most essential position and skills, and take good care of the foundation and the people beneath you. Wait until this round has passed before anything else.
- Love
- This relationship is being hollowed out bit by bit, with trust and warmth peeling off layer by layer. Chasing, pressing or trying hard to win it back now will only make it peel faster. Stop first, and hold to your own bottom line and the one thing that matters most. If only a shell is left, you can let go. If you are single, this is not a good time to begin.
- Money
- Money is leaking away little by little and what you have built up is being eaten into. This is not a time to move in: stay away from any new outlay, any expansion, any borrowing to win back losses. Stop, cut spending, and protect the money you need to eat and the place where you live. Only if you can hold the bottom layer is there a later.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsIt is not favorable to undertake anything.
The Tuan commentary
剝，剝也，柔變剛也。不利有攸往，小人長也。順而止之，觀象也。君子尚消息盈虛，天行也。
Bo means stripping away. The yielding changes the firm. "It is not favorable to go anywhere": petty people are growing. Comply and come to a halt: this comes from contemplating the image. The noble one values waning and growth, fullness and emptiness: this is the movement of heaven.
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
山附於地，剝。上以厚下安宅。
The mountain rests on the earth: Bo (Splitting Apart). Those above make their dwelling secure by being generous to those below.
The lines
Six at the beginning
Text剝床以足，蔑貞凶。The bed is stripped at the legs. The true is destroyed. Misfortune.In plain wordsThe bed starts rotting from its feet. The right way is being destroyed from the bottom up, little by little. Misfortune. More on this line →
Six in the second place
Text剝床以辨，蔑貞凶。The bed is stripped at the frame. The true is destroyed. Misfortune.In plain wordsThe rot has reached the place where the bed board meets the legs. One level higher, and the right way goes on being destroyed. Misfortune. More on this line →
Six in the third place
Text剝之，无咎。In the midst of the stripping. No blame.In plain wordsYou are in the middle of a group bent on destruction, yet you alone leave them and stand on the side of what is right. No blame. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text剝床以膚，凶。The bed is stripped to the skin. Misfortune.In plain wordsThe bed has rotted through, and now the flesh of the person lying on it is being hurt. The disaster has reached your own body. Misfortune. More on this line →
Six in the fifth place
Text貫魚，以宮人寵，无不利。A string of fish. Leading the palace ladies to receive favor. Nothing that is not favorable.In plain wordsLike fish threaded on a line, leading the women of the palace in order to receive the ruler's favor. Bringing your own kind along to submit to the right way: nothing that is not favorable. More on this line →
Nine at the top
Text碩果不食，君子得輿，小人剝廬。A great fruit left uneaten. The noble one gains a carriage; the petty person strips his own hut.In plain wordsThe last big fruit has not been eaten. For the noble one who meets this, it means gaining the support of the many; for the petty person, it means tearing down the roof over his own head. More on this line →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Bo belongs to the second pentad of Frost Falls, “Leaves yellow and fall” (October 28 to November 1, 2026). It is also one of the twelve sovereign hexagrams, standing for the ninth month of the traditional calendar: five yin below one yang, yang nearly spent.
The twelve sovereign hexagrams → The 24 solar terms, 72 pentads and their hexagrams →