Work on What Has Been Spoiled
Judgment
— I Ching · classical
元亨。利涉大川。先甲三日，后甲三日。
Repairing what has decayed leads to great success, and favors crossing the great river. Study the situation carefully for three days before beginning, and three days after.
Image
— Great Image
山下有风，蛊，君子以振民育德。
Wind trapped beneath the mountain, turning stagnant: this is the image of decay needing repair. Seeing this, a person of integrity rouses the people to action and cultivates virtue in them.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Organizational rot, process corruption, product obsolescence. A deep internal anti-corruption / process re-engineering campaign — research before and tracking after, refuse to coast.
Psychology & Cognition
Don't run from broken inherited relationships or messes. Surgical reform is painful but the start of renewal.
Decision Guidance
Investigate three days before, monitor three days after. Combine firmness with calibration; neither absolute strictness nor tolerated decay.
Integrated Reading
— Structure · timing · relations
Work on What Has Been Spoiled places Keeping Still / Mountain above The Gentle / Wind, Wood. Read the lower trigram as the emerging ground and the upper trigram as the field, pressure, or constraint it must answer. The core theme is Remedy · Reform · Cleaning house. Relations: the opposite hexagram shows the shadow/complement (Following); the inverse shows the other-side view (Following); the nuclear hexagram shows the hidden internal mechanism (The Marrying Maiden).
Line Path
Line path: Initial Six → Nine in the second → Nine in the third → Six in the fourth → Six in the fifth → Nine at the top. Read from bottom to top to see how the situation emerges, develops, crosses thresholds, and resolves.
Reflection Prompt
Am I acting from the proper position of Work on What Has Been Spoiled, or am I being pulled by criticizing decay without rebuilding order? What is the smallest reversible next move that respects the timing?
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
Edwards Deming on continuous improvement (kaizen); Michael Hammer on Business Process Re-engineering (BPR); Joseph Schumpeter's 'creative destruction'; the medical metaphor of debridement before healing.
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.