蛊 Work on the Decayed
Upper trigram: Mountain (the mountain) · Lower trigram: Wind (wind)
Repair what has spoiled — inherited problems demand honest fixing.
Modern interpretation
Something inherited is rotten: a process, a relationship, a family pattern. Name it plainly, take responsibility, and fix it methodically. The ancient formula is three days of preparation and three days of follow-through — no shortcuts.
The Judgment · 卦辞
元亨。利涉大川，先甲三日，后甲三日。
“Kû 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.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
干父之蛊，有子，考无咎。厉，终吉。
“The first line, divided, shows (a son) dealing with the troubles caused by his father. If he be an (able) son, the father will escape the blame of having erred. The position is perilous, but there will be good fortune in the end.”
干母之蛊，不可贞。
“The second line, undivided, shows (a son) dealing with the troubles caused by his mother. He should not (carry) his firm correctness (to the utmost).”
干父之蛊，小有悔，无大咎。
“The third line, undivided, shows (a son) dealing with the troubles caused by his father. There may be some small occasion for repentance, but there will not be any great error.”
裕父之蛊，往见吝。
“The fourth line, divided, shows (a son) viewing indulgently the troubles caused by his father. If he go forward, he will find cause to regret it.”
干父之蛊，用誉。
“The fifth line, divided, shows (a son) dealing with the troubles caused by his father. He obtains the praise of using (the fit instrument for his work).”
不事王侯，高尚其事。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows us one who does not serve either king or feudal lord, but in a lofty spirit prefers (to attend to) his own affairs.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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