Hexagram 28 — Great Exceeding
King Wen #28 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
Excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures.
What Hexagram 28 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 28 places wind (巽) beneath lake (兑) — gentle influence working inward below, joy lifting what it touches above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Great Exceeding”: excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
澤滅木，大過；君子以獨立不懼，遯世無悶。
(The trigram representing) trees hidden beneath that for the waters of a marsh forms Tâ Kwo. The superior man, in accordance with this, stands up alone and has no fear, and keeps retired from the world without regret.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Water rises over the trees: great excess. The wise stand alone without fear, and withdraw from the world without regret.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 28 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Great Exceeding describes excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: gentle influence working inward, held inside a larger setting of joy lifting what it touches. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Great Exceeding about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures. 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 28
What does 大過 (dà guò) mean?
Hexagram 28 of the I Ching is named 大過 (dà guò), usually rendered "Great Exceeding" in English editions. Its figure is built from wind (巽) below and lake (兑) above — gentle influence working inward beneath joy lifting what it touches.
Is hexagram 28 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 28 is warm: it contains one occurrence of 吉 (good fortune), 2 of 凶 (misfortune), and 3 of 無咎 (no blame). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 28 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Great Exceeding points to excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures. The figure pairs wind (巽) beneath lake (兑) — gentle influence working inward meeting joy lifting what it touches — 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 28 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Great Exceeding through the figure itself: wind (巽) below, lake (兑) above — gentle influence working inward held inside joy lifting what it touches. The plain reading: Excess weight on a great beam. Extraordinary times ask extraordinary, careful measures. The text carries 1 mention of 吉 (good fortune) and 2 of 凶 (misfortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 28 mean?
A cast of hexagram 28 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 28 gives hexagram 27, 頤 (Swallowing). 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 28 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 28 gives hexagram 27 — 頤 (Swallowing). Turned upside down, the figure is itself — one of the eight hexagrams that stay unchanged when inverted. Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 1 — 乾 (Force).
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
棟橈；利有攸往，亨。
Da Guo suggests to us a beam that is weak. There will be advantage in moving (under its conditions) in any direction whatever; there will be success.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
藉用白茅，無咎。
The first SIX, divided, shows one placing mats of the white m?o grass under things set on the ground. There will be no error.
枯楊生稊，老夫得其女妻；無不利。
The second NINE, undivided, shows a decayed willow producing shoots, or an old husband in possession of his young wife. There will be advantage in every way.
棟橈，凶。
The third NINE, undivided, shows a beam that is weak. There will be evil.
棟隆，吉；有它，吝。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows a beam curving upwards. There will be good fortune. If (the subject of it) looks for other (help but that of line one), there will be cause for regret.
枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，無咎無譽。
The fifth NINE, undivided, shows a decayed willow producing flowers, or an old wife in possession of her young husband. There will be occasion neither for blame nor for praise.
過涉滅頂；凶，無咎。
The topmost SIX, divided, shows its subject with extraordinary (boldness) wading through a stream, till the water hides the crown of his head. There will be evil, but no ground for blame.
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.