Hexagram 23: Bo

Mountain over Earth · 山地剥 · Tendency: Inauspicious

Structure

• Number: 23 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷖
• Upper trigram: Gen (Mountain)
• Lower trigram: Kun (Earth)
• Lines: yin yin yin yin yin yang (bottom to top)

The statement

不利有攸往。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates that the foundation is being weakened; it's not suitable to continue pushing things forcefully. Suitable to check the foundation, reduce losses, and first hold on to important parts. Don't just look at the surface that seems still held; problems may be slowly loosening from the bottom. The sooner you stop losses, the better.

A Buddhist reading

Bo (Stripping Away) means losing layer after layer, and Ouyi Zhixu sees two sides to it. On the bad side, the merely apparent concentration and wisdom of worldly life grow eloquence and polish while real practice gets stripped off. On the good side, once the skin is entirely gone, what remains is genuine. So the warning against setting out is not advice to sit and be stripped; it means stopping to see the rhythm of waxing and waning clearly, which is itself the rescue. On thickening the base to secure the dwelling, he remarks that the highest matter must be grasped from under your own heels. The uneaten fruit at the top is the goodness in the nature that can never be stripped away. Realize it and all is complete at once; cling to it while abandoning practice and you pull down your own roof.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous: Hexagram 22: Bi
• Next / Inverted: Hexagram 24: Futhe whole figure turned upside down
• Opposite: Hexagram 43: Guaievery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 2: Kunlines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.