Work on the Decayed addresses situations that have been allowed to rot — a project neglected, a relationship unmaintained, an institution carrying inherited problems. It is one of the least comfortable hexagrams and one of the most useful.
The structure: Mountain over Wind
Wind below, mountain above. Something eroding beneath a surface that looks solid. The decay is older than the symptom.
The Judgment
Work on what has been spoiled has supreme success. It furthers one to cross the great water. Before the starting point, three days. After the starting point, three days.
The three-days-before and three-days-after phrasing points at preparation and follow-through. Cleanup that starts abruptly and ends abruptly tends not to hold.
The Image
The wind blows low on the mountain: the image of Decay. Thus the superior man stirs up the people and strengthens their spirit.
The lines
- Line 1 — Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. If there is a son, no blame upon the departed father. Danger. In the end good fortune.
- Line 2 — Setting right what has been spoiled by the mother. One must not be too persevering.
- Line 3 — Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. There will be little remorse. No great blame.
- Line 4 — Tolerating what has been spoiled by the father. In continuing one sees humiliation.
- Line 5 — Setting right what has been spoiled by the father. One meets with praise.
- Line 6 — He does not serve kings and princes, sets himself higher goals.
The recurring image is inherited damage and the choice of whether to repair it. Line 4 is the failure case: tolerating the rot leads to humiliation.
Reading it practically
The pattern to look for is a problem you did not create but now have to deal with. The text is direct that dealing with it is favourable and that the danger is delay — line 4 is the only line with an unambiguous negative outcome, and what it describes is putting up with the decay rather than addressing it.
Why decay, specifically
The image is a bowl with a worm in it: something that looked sound, was used for a long time, and is now spoiled from the inside. That is different from damage. Damage has an external cause; decay accumulates while nobody was looking.
The practical consequence is that repair has to be internal and deliberate. Lines 1 through 5 each describe a stage of the work, and line 6 is the only one that permits withdrawal — serving lofty interests rather than kings.