Preponderance of the Great is the image of a ridgepole sagging under too much weight. Four strong lines crowd the middle while the two ends are yielding — mass concentrated where support is weakest.
The structure: Lake over Wind
Wind below, the lake above. The wood is underneath the water, submerged. Something ordinary is carrying more than it should.
The Judgment
Preponderance of the Great. The ridgepole sags to the breaking point. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. Success.
The promise of success sits oddly beside the sagging beam, and that is the point. The situation is genuinely overloaded, and it still favours action — provided the action has a destination.
The Image
The lake rises above the trees: the image of Preponderance of the Great. Thus the superior man, when he stands alone, is unconcerned, and if he has to renounce the world, he is undaunted.
The instruction is about independence under pressure. When the structure is overloaded, the person who needs approval is the vulnerable one.
The lines
- Line 1 — To spread white rushes underneath. No blame.
- Line 2 — A dry poplar puts forth shoots at the top. An older man takes a young wife. Everything furthers.
- Line 3 — The ridgepole sags to the breaking point. Misfortune.
- Line 4 — The ridgepole is braced. Good fortune. If there are ulterior motives, it is humiliating.
- Line 5 — A withered poplar puts forth flowers. An older woman takes a husband. No blame. No praise.
- Line 6 — One must go through the water. It goes over one's head. Misfortune. No blame.
Lines 1 and 2 describe preparation and unusual pairings that work; lines 3 and 6 describe load exceeding capacity. The middle is where the warning sits.
A note on blame
Line 6 is worth pausing on: misfortune, but no blame. The text is distinguishing an outcome from a fault, which it does not always do. Some overloads are not the walker's fault.
When excess is the point
This is one of the few hexagrams where the situation is defined by imbalance rather than by a specific event. The load is real, the support is thin, and no amount of effort at the ends fixes the middle.
Which is why the judgment's advice is about destination. If the structure will carry you somewhere, go. If it will not, no amount of perseverance changes the arithmetic.
The submerged wood
The Image is the lake rising above the trees — the supporting element is under water. That is the whole diagnosis, and the reason effort alone does not resolve it.