Da Guo to Jing: two rival companies in one market

Date not recorded · The president of a company · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 28 Dà Guò (Great Exceeding), line 4 moving, changing to Hexagram 48 Jǐng (The Well).

Original text

有甲乙兩會社。同業相競。一日甲社社長某來曰。今當市內販路之點。勢難兩立。因請一占。筮得大過之井。爻辭曰。九四棟隆吉。有它吝。斷曰。卦名大過。是剛過也。而當地立兩社。亦爲過分。占得四爻。爻曰棟隆吉。此卦三四兩爻。皆取象於棟。猶之二社並立也。可知甲乙之爭。即在此三四兩爻。乙社九三。以陽居陽。是材力與資本倶足。其應爲上爻。上爻無可憑藉。甲社爲九四。以陽居陰。材力與資本稍卑。其應爲初爻。初爻得其所藉。有藉者隆。無藉者撓。甲社勝矣。謂之棟隆吉。後果甲興乙仆。

In plain words

There were two companies, A and B, competing in the same business. One day the president of A came and said: as things stand in the city market, there is hardly room for both of us; please cast. The cast gave Da Guo with its fourth line moving, changing into Jing. The line reads: "Nine in the fourth place: the ridgepole bows upward; good fortune. If there is something else, shame."

Takashima's judgment: the hexagram is Great Excess, too much of the firm; and setting up two companies in one place is itself excessive. You drew the fourth line, "the ridgepole bows upward; good fortune". In this hexagram both the third and fourth lines take their image from the ridgepole, just as two companies stand side by side. So the contest between A and B lies in these two lines.

Company B is the third line, yang in a yang place: plenty of talent and capital; but its corresponding line is the top line, which offers nothing to lean on. Company A is the fourth line, yang in a yin place: somewhat less talent and capital; but its corresponding line is the first, which gives it support. What is supported bows upward; what is unsupported sags. A will win. That is "the ridgepole bows upward; good fortune".

In the end A prospered and B went under.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the fourth line of Da Guo is read, but it is weighed against the third.
The hexagram is read as excess of the firm, matching the excess of two companies in one place.
Two lines stand for the two sides: the third line's "the ridgepole sags; misfortune" and the fourth's "the ridgepole bows upward; good fortune" map neatly onto the two companies.
Corresponding lines decide who has support: the third answers the top line, at the hexagram's extreme with nothing to lean on; the fourth answers the first, whose text is "a mat of white rushes", something to rest on. "What is supported bows up, what is not sags" settles the contest, a textbook use of correspondence to compare two sides.

About the outcome

That "A prospered and B went under" is Takashima's own record, and he heard only A's side. When two rivals cannot both survive, one will fail first; when it is the one who asked that wins, the book records it as fulfilled. This site does not treat it as evidence; what is worth reading is how two lines and their correspondents are used to compare competitors.

Applying it to your situation

"What is supported bows up; what is not sags": one side is strong but has no one behind it, the other weaker but grounded. In your situation, what is your "first line", the customers, partners or other footing you can rely on?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

Cast a hexagram · All of Takashima's cases · The 64 hexagrams