Ku / Work on What Has Been Spoiled [Decay]

above:K^ en Keeping Still, Mountain
below:Sun The Gentle, Wind

Ku indicates great progress and success (to him who deals properly with the condition represented by it). There will be advantage in (efforts like that of crossing the great stream. (He should weigh well, however, the events of) three days before the turning point, and those (to be done) three days after it.

Overall Meaning

Decaying, destroying, the symbol of major power

In the 6th Appendix it is said, 'They who follow another are sure to have services (to perform), and hence Sui is followed by Ku.' But Ku means the having painful or troublesome services to do. It denotes here a state in which things are going to ruin, as if through poison or venomous worms; and the figure is supposed to describe the arrest of the decay and the restoration to soundness and vigor, so as to justify its auspice of great progress and success. To realize such a result, however, great efforts will be required, as in crossing the great stream; and a careful consideration of the events that have brought on the state of decay, and the measures to be taken to remedy it is also necessary. See Appendix I on the 'three days'. The subject of line 1, and of all the other lines, excepting perhaps 6, appears as a son. Yet the line itself is of the yin nature, and the trigram in which it plays the principal part is also yin. Line 2 is strong, and of the yang nature, with the yin line 5 as its proper correlate. In line 2, 5 appears as the mother; but its subject there is again a son, and the upper trigram altogether is yang. I am unable to account for these things.