Hexagram 23
Splitting Apart
Mountain over Earth
The judgment
不利。有攸往Five soft lines are rising and one strong line is left at the top. The structure is coming apart from below, and holding on spends the last of what holds it.
The image
The mountain rests on ground that is being taken away. What stays standing stays because nothing was added to it.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初六Line 1
剥床以足，蔑贞凶
A corner of the foundation has just been pried loose; reaching now to patch it, your strength cannot yet hold that place.
Marked in the textominous
- 六二Line 2
剥床以辨，蔑贞凶
Half the support has loosened; those around you begin to watch, and you hold the middle section alone.
Marked in the textominous
- 六三Line 3
剥之，无咎
Already in the peeling, you let go; stepping back sheds a weight that was never yours.
Marked in the textno blame
- 六四Line 4
剥床以肤，凶
The erosion touches your own skin; you have blocked your own retreat, fear rising from being too close to the seat of power.
Marked in the textominous
- 六五Line 5
贯鱼，以宫人宠，无不利
String the scattered people one by one and lead them forward; from the centered place, things begin to move.
Marked in the textnothing works against it
- 上九Line 6
硕果不食，君子德车，小人剥庐
The last fruit on the branch goes unpicked, left to hang through the winter. The noble one is a cart unloaded, rolling on empty to the end; the small one tears the thatch from his own roof, pulling away the last thing that sheltered him.
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram