Line 5 of
Hexagram 28: 大過
“Great Exceeding” — King Wen #28 · 九五
Line 5 九五
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.
— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1882 (public domain)
The Changed Hexagram 之卦
Line 5 changing turns hexagram 28 into䷟ Hexagram 32: 恆 — “Persevering”Read line 5 of hexagram 32 →Reading This Line
In the received Zhouyi text, line 5 of hexagram 28 is a strong (yang) line occupying the fifth line, the place the tradition treats as the ruler's position of the figure. The classical line statement — 枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，無咎無譽。 — is what commentators from the Ten Wings onward have read as the figure's own commentary on this one position. James Legge's 1882 rendering, quoted above, keeps the imagery of the original: each line of a hexagram is read as a stage of the same picture, and this page collects the source text for that stage. If you treat the line as moving in the traditional way, flipping it alone produces the changed hexagram linked above; readers have long used that pair of figures to compare a situation as given with the same situation one line different. As always with classical divination texts, this is presented for cultural and reference interest — the text itself carries no prediction about any modern reader's situation.
Questions About Hexagram 28 Line 5
What does line 5 of hexagram 28 say?
The received text reads: 枯楊生華，老婦得其士夫，無咎無譽。 In James Legge's 1882 translation: “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.”
Which hexagram does line 5 change hexagram 28 into?
Changing only line 5 of hexagram 28 (大過, “Great Exceeding”) gives hexagram 32 — 恆 (héng, “Persevering”). This is the classical way a changed hexagram is derived from moving lines.
Are line pages available for every hexagram?
Yes. Every one of the 64 hexagrams now has six line pages — one per line from the bottom line up to the top line — each with the classical Chinese text, Legge's 1882 translation, and the changed hexagram that line produces when it moves.
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1882), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text. · For reflection and reference — not financial, medical, or life advice.