More time, materials, support, or influence can first make us think of how much we could accomplish. Great Possession places abundance alongside the ability to carry it, restraint, and trust. It is more than a wish for wealth: it helps readers see that, as resources increase, how they are used matters even more.
Identifying the hexagram
Dà Yǒu is hexagram 14 in the traditional King Wen sequence, with the symbol ䷍. Its lower trigram is Qian ☰ and its upper trigram is Li ☲; their traditional images are heaven and fire, respectively. Count the lines from the bottom: 初九, 九二, 九三, 九四, 六五, 上九. A solid line is yang and a broken line is yin. Nine and six in the line headings identify yang and yin; they do not indicate additional lines.
The six lines are numbered from the bottom upward; the figure below displays their actual positions from top to bottom.
━━━━━━ 上九
━━ ━━ 六五
━━━━━━ 九四
━━━━━━ 九三
━━━━━━ 九二
━━━━━━ 初九
Hexagram statement
大有：元亨。
Editorial rendering: Great Possession: great scope for favorable progress.
Legge reads the name as abundant possession and understands yuan heng as substantial development and favorable progress under the appropriate conditions. The hexagram statement is brief; the six lines and commentaries gradually unfold how to handle what one possesses.
There is therefore no need to use these words to guess future income. Begin by taking stock of what is actually available: what can be used, what comes with agreements, and what needs maintenance? The contemporary learning question in Great Possession is how to match resources with responsibility.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
Interpretation in the Ten Wings
The Commentary on the Judgment (Tuan zhuan) and the Commentary on the Images (Xiang zhuan) belong to the Yi zhuan, the commentaries commonly called the Ten Wings. Their interpretations are kept separate below from the hexagram and line statements, followed by applications for contemporary learning.
The Commentary on the Judgment pairs strength with cultivated clarity, noting that the yielding line occupies the honored position and receives responses from above and below. The Commentary on the Images takes fire above heaven as its image and discusses restraining evil and promoting good. This is a traditional elaboration on governance and virtue.
A contemporary application can retain the aim of discerning how resources are used and supporting beneficial activities. But deciding what is beneficial still requires listening to those actually affected; holding resources does not make someone invariably right.
[zhouyi-14; hon-sep]
Six lines, from bottom to top
The quotations below are line statements; the explanations that follow are original learning commentary. Good fortune, no blame, and regret belong to ancient divinatory language and cannot be turned directly into guarantees about an individual’s future.
初九 · Notice difficulties even in favorable conditions
无交害，匪咎，艱則无咎。
Editorial rendering: No involvement with harm, no blame. Recognizing difficulty leaves no blame.
Legge reads the opening as not yet having come into contact with harmful things and stresses recognizing difficulties and dangers in the situation. The absence of an immediate problem does not remove the need to consider what comes next.
When you receive equipment or materials, first establish how they will be stored and maintained and what uses are permitted. Clarifying the basics can reduce unintended burdens that come with possession.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
九二 · The ability to carry resources makes them usable
大車以載，有攸往，无咎。
Editorial rendering: A great cart carries the load; there is somewhere to go. No blame.
A large cart carrying a load is a readily understandable image. Legge retains both the cart and its load, bringing transport and responsibility into view alongside possession.
If you collect a great deal of information without a way to organize it, others may still be unable to use it. Start with a clear catalog, responsible people, and instructions so that the resources do more than accumulate.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
九三 · Possession also involves sharing and duty
公用亨于天子，小人弗克。
Editorial rendering: A lord presents an offering to the Son of Heaven; a petty person cannot fulfill this.
This line has the ancient political setting of a feudal lord presenting an offering to the Son of Heaven. Legge explains it in those terms and discusses the virtue needed to fulfill that duty.
A contemporary analogy asks whether resources serve only oneself or also respond to shared needs. It should not reproduce ruler–subject relationships or label people who disagree as unworthy “petty people.”
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
九四 · Spare capacity need not always be displayed
匪其彭，无咎。
Editorial rendering: Do not let abundance become excess: no blame. This follows the attributed reading discussed below; the wording admits other interpretations.
This sentence presents textual and interpretive difficulties. Legge reads it as keeping abundant resources under restraint. This article uses that explicitly attributed reading without claiming to have ruled out other explanations.
You may be able to contribute more yet choose not to expand an undertaking without limit. Especially when others need time to keep up, moderating its scale may also make existing achievements more secure.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
六五 · Trust can coexist with clear boundaries
厥孚交如，威如，吉。
Editorial rendering: Sincerity meets a response, joined with dignified authority. Good fortune.
Legge reads this line as sincerity meeting a response while appropriate dignity is maintained. The authority of ancient governance cannot be transferred directly into a modern management style that makes people afraid.
Those who hold resources can communicate gently while clearly explaining agreements and responsibilities. Understandable, discussable rules build trust better than moods that leave others guessing where the boundaries lie.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
上九 · Understand the traditional language of blessing
自天佑之，吉无不利。
Editorial rendering: Help comes from heaven. Good fortune; nothing is unfavorable.
This line explicitly invokes help from heaven. Legge retains that expression of belief; a learning article should acknowledge what the text says without presenting it as a verified law of nature.
Contemporary readers can reflect on the support and conditions beyond their individual achievements, practicing gratitude for collaboration and a helpful environment. The line does not promise that every subsequent choice will succeed or justify disregarding risk.
[zhouyi-14; legge1882-14]
Making a shared tool room genuinely useful
Original contemporary scenario
The following contemporary scenario was created for learning.
After a neighborhood receives donated tools, its members discover that the main problem is not a shortage. Nobody knows who has borrowed what or which tools are suitable for beginners. The person responsible first organizes an inventory and instructions, clarifies borrowing and returns, and asks the relevant people to verify the necessary safety information.
When someone proposes accepting more donations, the group first checks its storage and maintenance capacity. For items it cannot currently care for properly, it explains the reasons and declines them instead of treating quantity as the only measure of achievement.
The resources become easier both to use and to care for. Great Possession here offers reflection on capacity and responsibility, not a formula in which more supplies necessarily mean greater success.
Common misreadings
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Great Possession does not predict wealth or returns. “自天佑之,” help from heaven, is the traditional text’s language of belief, not a guarantee of real-world outcomes.
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The ancient contexts of the Son of Heaven, feudal lords, and petty people need explanation. They do not justify ranking modern people as superior or inferior or monopolizing the right to interpret.
Three practices
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List three resources already available for actual use, and write down each one’s maintenance needs or conditions of use.
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Identify something that becomes harder to manage as its quantity increases, and consider what capacity or arrangement it needs.
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Specify one part that can be shared and one reasonable boundary that must remain.
Related reading
Modesty (hexagram-15)
Great Possession examines having and bearing responsibility. Modesty continues the question of proportion when one has achievements and resources. Humility does not require denying what you have; it calls for a more accurate understanding of your own and others’ contributions.
Closing question
When reading Great Possession, first ask: how can the conditions available to me become genuinely useful, sustainable support?
Textual note
The second nine uses the variant 車 listed in the source, whose main text has 轝. The fourth nine uses the listed variant 彭, where the main text has 尫. These quotation choices are explicitly recorded here.
Sources
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legge1882-14: The Yî King — Hexagram 14, chapter XIV, judgement, six lines and notes
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unicode-hexagrams: Yijing Hexagram Symbols — U+4DC0–U+4DFF
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legge-scan-rights: Sacred Books of the East volume16 scan metadata
Classical quotations retain the Chinese source’s character forms and modern punctuation. The commentary is translated from original Simplified Chinese learning prose. The historical English source and received Chinese text are used together, and interpretations by later translators are attributed in the article. This article is not a basis for medical, investment, or other professional decisions.