# Hexagram 28: Great Preponderance

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/28
Last updated: 2026-10-07

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

- **Upper trigram:** [Dui 兌](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/dui), Lake, the joyous, open
- **Lower trigram:** [Xun 巽](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/xun), Wind, the gentle, penetrating
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 011110 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Great preponderance. The beam bends under too much weight. Something in your situation has grown beyond what its structure can sustainably hold. Continuing as-is guarantees breakage. Act now, with both urgency and care, to restore balance before the collapse.

## Image

The lake rising above the trees, drowning what should stand in the open air. The superior person, when they stand alone, is not afraid, and when they must withdraw from the world, feels no regret.

## Counsel

Acknowledge the overload. Something has to give: some commitment, some expectation, some way of doing things. Choose consciously rather than waiting for circumstances to choose for you. Extraordinary situations sometimes require extraordinary measures; do not cling to ordinary rules here.

## The six lines

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

### Line 1

> A six at the beginning means:
> To spread white rushes underneath.
> No blame.

### Line 2

> A nine in the second place means:
> A dry poplar sprouts at the root.
> An older man takes a young wife.
> Everything is furthering.

### Line 3

> A nine in the third place means:
> The ridgepole sags to the breaking point. Misfortune.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> The ridgepole is braced. Good fortune.
> If there are ulterior motives, it is humiliating.

### Line 5

> A nine in the fifth place means:
> A withered poplar puts forth flowers.
> An older woman takes a husband.
> No blame. No praise.

### Line 6

> A six at the top means:
> One must go through the water.
> It goes over one's head.
> Misfortune. No blame.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [1 The Creative](https://thefreeiching.com/library/1)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** itself
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [27 Nourishment](https://thefreeiching.com/library/27)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [43 Breakthrough](https://thefreeiching.com/library/43) |
| Line 2 | [31 Influence](https://thefreeiching.com/library/31) |
| Line 3 | [47 Oppression](https://thefreeiching.com/library/47) |
| Line 4 | [48 The Well](https://thefreeiching.com/library/48) |
| Line 5 | [32 Duration](https://thefreeiching.com/library/32) |
| Line 6 | [44 Coming to Meet](https://thefreeiching.com/library/44) |

Previous: [27 Nourishment](https://thefreeiching.com/library/27). Next: [29 The Abysmal](https://thefreeiching.com/library/29). [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 28: Great Preponderance." https://thefreeiching.com/library/28 (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/28). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.