Repairing the Spoiled

The Judgment

Wind is blocked by the mountain and cannot blow through, so what lies beneath grows stale and spoils — this hexagram is about accumulated decay and the work of setting it right. Food left too long breeds worms; matters left too long breed trouble. What it speaks of are the situations that have soured through delay, neglect, or slow corruption. Yet the hexagram does not ask you to lament the rot; it asks you to treat it as something you can repair. The moment a problem is seen is the moment mending begins. The tone now is to take responsibility and clean up — stop skirting the spoiled root, but do not rush to make everything new at once. First understand where it went wrong and why, then sort through the mess the past has left, layer by layer. Setting right what has decayed takes time, and the nerve not to mind getting your hands dirty. Are you willing to take on the task everyone else keeps avoiding?

The Six Lines

1. First line

   You take up the work of mending what an earlier generation let spoil, and with a capable successor to clean it up, the forebear's faults can be made good. This line is about the courage to take the baton: the process carries risk and asks for care at every step, but it can be steered toward a good end. Repairing old decay begins with someone willing to shoulder it.

2. Second line

   Setting right what a gentler hand left spoiled should not be done by force or a single hard cut. This line counsels a sense of measure: some decay is tangled up with feeling and old ties, and too much rigidity harms the very root. Work at it slowly, with warmth and give, so that in curing the rot you do not wound the people.

3. Third line

   You move to set right an inherited decay, and in the process a little regret is hard to avoid. This line says that when you clean up an old situation somewhat too hastily, pressing too hard, you leave a small remorse behind — but no great harm. The direction is right; just ease your grip afterward and there is no lasting trouble.

4. Fourth line

   Being too lenient with the decay a predecessor left, letting it drift untouched, will sooner or later bring something to regret. This line is a warning: indulgence is not kindness. Keep accommodating the spoiled place and the problem only snowballs. What must be faced should not be put off any longer.

5. Fifth line

   You set right the inherited decay and do it fittingly, and so you win others' praise. This line is about capable responsibility: you do not bull your way through but find the right people and the right method to straighten the old fault out. Handling a hard task gracefully is itself a kind of good name.

6. Top line

   No longer chasing rank and reward, you turn instead to what you yourself hold worthy. This line is about withdrawing once the work is done: with what needed clearing cleared away, you may choose to step back to a freer place and tend to your own aims. This detachment is the ease that comes after the mess is sorted.

Reading the Change

This hexagram is about setting right accumulated decay; from the first line to the top, it runs through taking up the burden, balancing firmness with give, handling a hard task gracefully, and finally stepping clear. When a line changes, the question of how to clean up an old situation turns at one particular stage. A change low down usually asks you to see the root of the trouble and gauge how hard to push; a change up top speaks to leaving and self-possession once the mending has succeeded. Read where the changing line falls, then the resulting hexagram, and you know which stage this repair is moving into. What is spoiled can be mended, so long as someone is willing to take it on.