大畜Daxu · Great Restraint
In one sentence
You have saved up plenty of capital. Time to take it out and use it.
A great store: learning, ability and resources have piled up thick, and at the same time have been held firmly in check, with no rash moves. Keep to the right course and don't hole up at home — going out to work and accepting a post brings good fortune, and even the big hurdles can be crossed. In ordinary times, keep learning and keep accumulating.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- The learning, experience and resources you have stored up are already substantial, and you should not stay tucked away any longer. It suits you to go out and work, accept an appointment and take on larger responsibility; even the hard passages can be crossed. The condition is keeping to the right course and not being restless. Having been held back earlier was no bad thing; that was gathering strength. Keep learning in ordinary times.
- Love
- In matters of the heart you are someone with reserves: you can keep your composure, and you have something to give. Do not stay shut in your own world; go out and let people see you. If you have a partner, this relationship has a deep base, and together you can get across a major threshold. Being able to hold yourself in check when you feel impulsive is your strength right now; keep it.
- Money
- What you have was saved up bit by bit, and by now it is not small. Do not live by eating into your savings; going out to work and earn is the right way, and the big things that need doing can be carried if you do them the right way. Even with money in hand, hold it steady and do not move it rashly, and keep saving in ordinary times.
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 favorable to stay true. Don't sit at home eating without working — go out and work, serve the public good, and there is good fortune; you can cross the great river.
The Tuan commentary
大畜，剛健篤實輝光，日新其德，剛上而尚賢。能止健，大正也。不家食吉，養賢也。利涉大川，應乎天也。
Daxu: firm and strong, solid and true, shining with light; daily it renews its virtue. The firm is above and honors the worthy. To be able to halt the strong: this is great correctness. "Not eating at home brings good fortune": the worthy are nourished. "It is favorable to cross the great river": it responds to 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
天在山中，大畜。君子以多識前言往行，以畜其德。
Heaven within the mountain: Daxu (Great Restraint). The noble one learns widely the words and deeds of the past, and so builds up virtue.
The lines
Nine at the beginning
Text有厲，利已。There is danger. It is favorable to stop.In plain wordsThere is danger ahead. Stopping is favorable. More on this line →
Nine in the second place
Text輿說輹。The cart's axle mount comes off.In plain wordsThe part between the cart body and the axle has come off by itself. Nobody blocked you; you saw the situation clearly and chose to stop of your own accord. More on this line →
Nine in the third place
Text良馬逐，利艱貞。曰閑輿衛，利有攸往。Fine horses give chase. It is favorable to stay true through hardship. Practice driving and defense every day. It is favorable to have somewhere to go.In plain wordsGalloping on a fine horse. You can advance now, but you are charging too hard: treat it as a hard task, keep to the right course, drill every day in driving the chariot and in defense, and only then is going forward favorable. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text童牛之牿，元吉。A headboard on a young bull. Supreme good fortune.In plain wordsTying a crossbar on the head of a calf whose horns haven't grown yet. Heading off a problem before it appears takes the least effort. Great good fortune. More on this line →
Six in the fifth place
Text豶豕之牙，吉。The tusks of a gelded boar. Good fortune.In plain wordsThe boar's tusks have been brought under control. The problem has already shown itself, so it is not as easy as it would have been at the start, but you have seized the crux and can contain it. Good fortune. More on this line →
Nine at the top
Text何天之衢，亨。How open the highway of heaven! Success.In plain wordsWhat a wide-open highway of heaven, running in every direction! Held down for so long, at last the way is clear and unobstructed. Things go through. 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, Daxu belongs to the third pentad of White Dew, “Birds store up food” (September 18 to September 22, 2027).