HEXAGRAM 18 · gǔ

Work on What Has Been Spoiled

Repairing what has decayed: responsibility after a problem has had time to grow

山风蛊Classical Chinese included

Translation approach

The Chinese source stays visible. Where an editorial close rendering is available, it stays near the wording before Astro I Ching expands into cultural interpretation. Why we separate these layers →

CLASSICAL CHINESE

The source anchor

Read the source first. The English layer below remains accountable to these passages rather than replacing them with a simplified verdict.

卦辞 · Judgment

蛊：元亨，利涉大川。先甲三日，后甲三日。

Close rendering

Gu: great success. Favorable to cross the great river. Three days before Jia; three days after Jia.

《大象》 · Image

山下有风，蛊；君子以振民育德。

Close rendering

Wind below the mountain: Gu. The noble person stirs the people and nurtures virtue.

How to read the middle layer

Close rendering stays near wording and sequence. It is not presented as the only possible translation; the cultural reading below is where Astro I Ching explains image, structure, and practical logic in fuller English.

Jia (甲) is retained from the source phrase rather than converted into a modern calendar date.

ASTRO I CHING · CULTURAL READING

Why this hexagram says what it says

Cultural reading of the image

Wind moves beneath Mountain and becomes blocked. Over time, what cannot circulate begins to spoil. Gu is the work of meeting a problem that has already accumulated a history.

Cultural reading of the judgment

The point is not simply to condemn the past. The hexagram asks how disorder formed, what can be repaired, and what has to change before and after the turning point.

SIX LINES · ONE STORY

How the hexagram develops from bottom to top

Line 1 · 初六

Classical Chinese

干父之蛊，有子，考无咎，厉终吉。

Close rendering

Correcting the father's spoilage: there is a son; the father is without blame. Danger, ending in good fortune.

Cultural reading

Repair begins by accepting the inheritance of a problem rather than stopping at blame.

Line 2 · 九二

Classical Chinese

干母之蛊，不可贞。

Close rendering

Correcting the mother's spoilage: one should not hold rigidly to one course.

Cultural reading

Older or softer problems are easily damaged by excessive hardness; correction needs proportion.

Line 3 · 九三

Classical Chinese

干父之蛊，小有悔，无大咎。

Close rendering

Correcting the father's spoilage: a little regret, no great blame.

Cultural reading

Taking responsibility can involve some regret, but carrying the repair matters more than avoiding discomfort.

Line 4 · 六四

Classical Chinese

裕父之蛊，往见吝。

Close rendering

Being lenient with the father's spoilage: going on brings regret.

Cultural reading

Endless tolerance of an old defect can turn understanding into permission for the defect to continue.

Line 5 · 六五

Classical Chinese

干父之蛊，用誉。

Close rendering

Correcting the father's spoilage: it meets with praise.

Cultural reading

When repair is done well, the former problem can become a source of renewed credibility.

Line 6 · 上九

Classical Chinese

不事王侯，高尚其事。

Close rendering

Not serving kings or lords; holding one's own work in high regard.

Cultural reading

At the highest level, completion may mean refusing further entanglement in power and protecting a higher standard instead.

BRING IT BACK TO LIFE

What this can help you notice

Useful for inherited technical debt, old relational patterns, legacy systems, or any problem whose history has become part of the problem.

A common misreading

Work on What Has Been Spoiled is not endless blame of the past. Repair becomes real only when someone takes responsibility for the next structure.

Keep the classical text and the interpretive layer separate: one is the source, the other is Astro I Ching's explanation of how the source can be read.

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