Da Zhuang to Feng: leading a company flush with capital

Date not recorded · The president of a company · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 34 Dà Zhuàng (Great Power), line 2 moving, changing to Hexagram 55 Fēng (Abundance).

Original text

某會社社長來。請占氣運。筮得大壯之豐。爻辭曰。九二貞吉。斷曰。此卦四陽在下。二陰在上。陽大陰小。剛浸而長。故曰大壯。足下占會社而得二爻。可見社中資金充裕。足以有爲。足下身任社長。所當以柔濟剛。以靜制動。從容辦事。不期速效。謙和有禮。進退悉中。自能徐徐獲益。吉無不利也。後二年。至四爻。四爲大壯之主。可得大利。後果如所占。

In plain words

The president of a company came to ask about his fortunes. The cast gave Da Zhuang with its second line moving, changing into Feng. The line reads: "Nine in the second place: steadfastness brings good fortune."

Takashima's judgment: this hexagram has four yang lines below and two yin lines above; the great outweighs the small and firmness is steadily growing, hence Great Strength. Asking about your company and drawing the second line shows that the company has ample capital and can accomplish a great deal.

As president, you should temper firmness with gentleness and meet activity with calm; go about things unhurriedly and do not expect quick results; be modest and courteous, and keep to the middle in advancing and holding back. Then gains will come steadily, and all will go well. Two years from now, at the fourth line, the ruling line of Da Zhuang, there will be large profits.

It turned out as he had judged.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the second line of Da Zhuang is read.
The figure has four yang lines below: the great outweighs the small and firmness grows, read as a company with plenty of capital.
The line's place is yang in a yin place, and central: firm but in a yielding seat, read as a president who should temper strength with gentleness and keep to the middle. The Small Image says "the second line's steadfastness is good because it is central", and Takashima's advice unfolds from that word.
Time is counted by lines: from the second to the fourth gives large profits in two years; the fourth line, "the fence opens", is the ruler of the hexagram.

About the outcome

That it "turned out as he had judged" is Takashima's own record, with no figures for the profits two years on. Most of the reading is really management advice: when you are strong, do not rush. This site does not treat it as evidence.

Applying it to your situation

Da Zhuang is a time of great strength, yet the second line says only "steadfastness is good". When resources are plentiful, the easiest mistake is to push too hard. Where you have strength to spare, which matter actually needs a steady pace rather than more speed?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

Cast a hexagram · All of Takashima's cases · The 64 hexagrams