Hexagram 14 · Possession in Great Measure (大有 Dà Yǒu)

By the Tao Arcana editors · for reflection, not fortune-telling

Possession in Great Measure is the hexagram of abundance, of having a great deal and holding it well. Fire blazes above heaven like the sun at noon, casting light over everything, and a single yielding line near the top gracefully holds all that strength. This is a fortunate figure, but it is a fortune with a condition attached. Great means, the book reminds you, carry great responsibility, and abundance only lasts when it is carried with modesty.

Fire sits above, clarity and brilliance; Heaven sits below, the creative power. The soft fifth line is the centre everyone yields to, a sign that this great possession is held not by force but by clear, modest, trusted character. The commentary tells the ruler to curb what is harmful and uphold what is good, honouring the natural order of things. So the hexagram is less about the riches themselves than about the worthiness of the one who holds them.

Trust, and then something with teeth

The judgment of this hexagram is two characters long.

No conditions, no crossing of a great water, no advice for the noble one. Whatever this figure has to say about holding a great deal, it does not say it in the judgment. It says it in the fifth line, the single yielding place that all five strong ones defer to, and the line names two qualities rather than one.

The first half is the part everyone expects. 孚 is the book’s word for inner truth or good faith; 交如 makes it two-way, a thing that travels out and comes back. The wing glosses it warmly enough: sincerity is what gets other people to show you what they are actually aiming at.

The second half is 威如, and it is not warm. 威 is the awe that makes a room straighten up — the same character used of the majesty of a ruler and of the menace of a threat. Placed directly after good faith, in a hexagram of plenty, it looks like a contradiction, and the Image is unusually willing to explain itself.

易而无備也. 易 here is easy in the sense of taking things lightly, treating them as no trouble; 无備 is keeping no precautions. The reason given for the commanding bearing is not that the ruler needs deference or that the goods need guarding. It is that people standing in abundance go slack, and someone has to still be alert. Sincerity alone, on this reading, produces exactly that slackness, because nothing about it asks anyone to sit up.

That is a harder claim than the usual counsel of modesty, and the hexagram supports it elsewhere. The third line spends possession upward — 公用亨于天子，小人弗克, the duke presents his offering to the Son of Heaven, and the small man is not able to do it — where 亨 is read as 享, to make an offering. What separates the two men is not the size of the holding. It is whether the holding can be handed over.

Then the last line, which is the one place the hexagram lets go of the conditions entirely:

The top place is usually where this book records the bill. It is where Kun puts dragons fighting in open country and where Tai puts the wall going back into the moat. Da You spends it on the least qualified sentence in the hexagram, and gives the credit to somebody else.

Judgment, line and Image texts follow the copy at Chinese Wikisource, which prints the top line with 佑; other editions print 祐, the same word with the ritual radical. The English is a plain rendering kept close to the Chinese. 威如 is rendered as dignity, majesty and severity in different published versions, and the choice shifts how hard the line reads; the Image clause 易而无備 is compressed even by the standards of that wing, and who exactly is being careless in it is supplied by the reader.

What this hexagram counsels in a reading

When Da You answers your question, you are surrounded by capability and plenty, and the counsel is to wield it generously and humbly. Restrain excess. Let your good fortune serve more than just yourself. The hexagram is warm and auspicious, but it keeps gently pointing back to character: the abundance is real, and it will keep flowing as long as you hold it without arrogance. Hoarding or boasting is exactly what would put it at risk.

In love and relationships

For relationships, this hexagram suggests richness, warmth, and a generous abundance of good feeling. There is plenty to give, and the counsel is to give it openly and without ego. If you are the one with more, in love, security, or attention, hold it modestly and share it freely. The danger here is never scarcity; it is the pride or carelessness that abundance sometimes breeds. Stay humble and the warmth keeps flowing.

In work and money

In work, Da You is a strong sign of success, resources, and capability at your disposal. Use them well and generously, restrain the urge to overreach, and let your achievements lift others too. With money, it is one of the more straightforwardly prosperous hexagrams, pointing to plenty, but it ties that plenty to responsible stewardship. Wealth held humbly and used for good endures; wealth flaunted does not.

Moving lines and the changing hexagram

The moving lines of Possession in Great Measure describe how to handle abundance at each stage, from keeping clear of harm at the start, to the great wagon laden with goods, to the final line where the abundance is so blessed by heaven that nothing stands in its way. A changing line here usually comments on how worthily you are carrying your good fortune. Read it as a check on modesty and generosity. The hexagram it becomes shows where the abundant time is heading.

Its Tarot kin

On the deck side of this site, Possession in Great Measure rhymes with The Sun. Both are images of brightness at its fullest, warmth and abundance shining openly. The Sun is joy and success in plain daylight; Da You is that same midday blaze, the sun over heaven, lighting a season of plenty.

Cast the coins and you might draw this one — try the I Ching tool, or see all sixty-four on the full hexagram grid. For reflection and insight, not fortune-telling — see our disclaimer.