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Hexagram 23 · Po — Splitting Apart (Overthrow)

Mountain above, Earth below · Trigrams: Mountain / Earth · Code 000001 · Book of Changes, Hexagram 23

The Judgment

James Legge, 1899 (public domain)

Po indicates that (in the state which it symbolises) it will not be advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever.

The Oracle's Counsel

Po — a mountain resting on the earth — is the hexagram of splitting apart. Decay has climbed from the bottom, overturning the couch, and the oracle's word is blunt: it will not be advantageous to make a movement in any direction whatever. The small men have displaced the great; the one strong line left must wait. The lines trace the fall: the legs, then the frame, then the skin of him who lies there. Yet one among the overthrowers is without error, and the fifth line leads the others like a string of fishes to the favour of the palace. At the top, the great fruit is not eaten: the superior man is carried as a chariot carries him.

The Six Lines

Initial Six

Line 1

The first line, divided, shows one overturning the couch by injuring its legs. (The injury will go on to) the destruction of (all) firm correctness, and there will be evil.

Second Six

Line 2

The second line, divided, shows one overthrowing the couch by injuring its frame. (The injury will go on to) the destruction of (all) firm correctness, and there will be evil.

Third Six

Line 3

The third line, divided, shows its subject among the overthrowers; but there will be no error.

Fourth Six

Line 4

The fourth line, divided, shows its subject having overthrown the couch, and (going to injure) the skin (of him who lies on it). There will be evil.

Fifth Six

Line 5

The fifth line, divided, shows (its subject leading on the others like) a string of fishes, and (obtaining for them) the favour that lights on the inmates of the palace. There will be advantage in every way.

Topmost Nine

Line 6

The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject (as) a great fruit which has not been eaten. The superior man finds (the people again) as a chariot carrying him. The small men (by their course) overthrow their own dwellings.

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