# Hexagram 26: Great Taming

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/26
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Gen 艮](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/gen), Mountain, keeping still
- **Lower trigram:** [Qian 乾](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/qian), Heaven, the creative, strong
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 111001 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Great taming. Strong energies are gathered and held by a still, steady discipline. Power here is not discharged impulsively; it is stored, refined, and directed. The cultivation of character is daily and unglamorous, but this is how real greatness is built.

## Image

Heaven within the mountain. The superior person studies the words and deeds of the ancients and so nourishes their character.

## Counsel

Commit to a real practice and stay with it. Study what is excellent; keep company with what is worthy. Do not expect quick returns from this work, and do not abandon it when the reward is slow in coming. The capacity you are building now will support something large.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A nine at the beginning means:
> Danger is at hand. It is favorable to desist.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> The axles are removed from the wagon.

### Line 3

> A nine in the third place means:
> A good horse that follows others.
> Favorable is awareness of danger and perseverance.
> Practice daily in driving the wagon and in defensive arms.
> It is favorable to have somewhere to go.

### Line 4

> A six in the fourth place means:
> The headboard of a young bull.
> Great good fortune!

### Line 5

> A six in the fifth place means:
> The tooth of a gelded boar. Good fortune!

### Line 6

> A nine at the top means:
> One attains the way of heaven. Success.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [54 The Marrying Maiden](https://thefreeiching.com/library/54)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [25 Innocence](https://thefreeiching.com/library/25)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [45 Gathering Together](https://thefreeiching.com/library/45)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [18 Work on the Decayed](https://thefreeiching.com/library/18) |
| Line 2 | [22 Grace](https://thefreeiching.com/library/22) |
| Line 3 | [41 Decrease](https://thefreeiching.com/library/41) |
| Line 4 | [14 Great Possession](https://thefreeiching.com/library/14) |
| Line 5 | [9 Small Taming](https://thefreeiching.com/library/9) |
| Line 6 | [11 Peace](https://thefreeiching.com/library/11) |

Previous: [25 Innocence](https://thefreeiching.com/library/25). Next: [27 Nourishment](https://thefreeiching.com/library/27). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 26: Great Taming." https://thefreeiching.com/library/26 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/26). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.