Hexagram 26 — Great Accumulating
King Wen #26 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
Great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance.
What Hexagram 26 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 26 places heaven (乾) beneath mountain (艮) — creative force pressing upward below, stillness holding its ground above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Great Accumulating”: great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
天在山中，大畜；君子以多識前言往行，以畜其德。
(The trigram representing) a mountain, and in the midst of it that (representing) heaven, form Tâ Khû. The superior man, in accordance with this, stores largely in his memory the words and deeds of former men, to subserve the accumulation of his virtue.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Heaven held within a mountain: great reserves. The wise learn widely from the words and deeds of the past, storing up character.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 26 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Great Accumulating describes great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: creative force pressing upward, held inside a larger setting of stillness holding its ground. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Great Accumulating about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 26
What does 大畜 (dà xù) mean?
Hexagram 26 of the I Ching is named 大畜 (dà xù), usually rendered "Great Accumulating" in English editions. Its figure is built from heaven (乾) below and mountain (艮) above — creative force pressing upward beneath stillness holding its ground.
Is hexagram 26 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 26 is warm: it contains 3 occurrences of 吉 (good fortune). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 26 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Great Accumulating points to great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance. The figure pairs heaven (乾) beneath mountain (艮) — creative force pressing upward meeting stillness holding its ground — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 26 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Great Accumulating through the figure itself: heaven (乾) below, mountain (艮) above — creative force pressing upward held inside stillness holding its ground. The plain reading: Great reserves held firm. Halt where needed and gather strength for a major advance. The text carries 3 mentions of 吉 (good fortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 26 mean?
A cast of hexagram 26 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 26 gives hexagram 45, 萃 (Clustering). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 26 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 26 gives hexagram 45 — 萃 (Clustering). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 25 — 无妄 (Without Embroiling). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 54 — 歸妹 (Converting the Maiden).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
利貞，不家食，吉；利涉大川。
Under the conditions of Da Xu it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. (If its subject do not seek to) enjoy his revenues in his own family (without taking service at court), there will be good fortune. It will be advantageous for him to cross the great stream.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
有厲，利已。
The first NINE, undivided, shows its subject in a position of peril. It will be advantageous for him to stop his advance.
輿說輹。
The second NINE, undivided, shows a carriage with the strap under it removed.
良馬逐，利艱貞。曰閑輿衛，利有攸往。
The third NINE, undivided, shows its subject urging his way with good horses. It will be advantageous for him to realise the difficulty (of his course), and to be firm and correct, exercising himself daily in his charioteering and methods of defence; then there will be advantage in whatever direction he may advance.
童牛之牿，元吉。
The fourth six, divided, shows the young bull, (and yet) having the piece of wood over his horns. There will be great good fortune.
豶豕之牙，吉。
The fifth six, divided, shows the teeth of a castrated hog. There will be good fortune.
何天之衢，亨。
The sixth NINE, undivided, shows its subject (as) in command of the firmament of heaven. There will be progress.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.