Preponderance of the great — the ridgepole bending under too much weight.
A critical, overloaded situation strains toward the breaking point. Extraordinary times call for decisive, exceptional measures. Act to relieve the pressure before the beam snaps.
excesscrisispressuredecisive action
Preponderance of the Great places Lake (joyous, open) above Wind (gentle, penetrating). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
栋桡，利有攸往，亨。
The Image · 大象
泽灭木，大过；君子以独立不惧，遁世无闷。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初六藉用白茅，无咎。象曰：藉用白茅，柔在下也。
- 九二枯杨生稊，老夫得其女妻，无不利。象曰：老夫女妻，过以相与也。
- 九三栋桡，凶。象曰：栋桡之凶，不可以有辅也。
- 九四栋隆，吉；有它吝。象曰：栋隆之吉，不桡乎下也。
- 九五枯杨生华，老妇得其士夫，无咎无誉。象曰：枯杨生华，何可久也。老妇士夫，亦可丑也。
- 上六过涉灭顶，凶，无咎。象曰：过涉之凶，不可咎也。
The judgment, image and line texts above are quoted from the original Zhou Yi. A modern Chinese translation of the full classic is available on the original-text page.