The I Ching
The overreaching dragon repents
The line above the peak
Book of Changes, Qian hexagram, top line; Commentary on the Words
What the risk is when everything has gone your way for a long time, and why the top line is not the best one.
What actually happened?
Counting up Qian, the fifth line is the dragon flying in the heavens, which looks like the summit. There is one line above it. The top line reads: the overreaching dragon repents. The Commentary on the Words glosses that word: to know advancing and not retreating, to know preserving and not perishing, to know gaining and not losing. Three knowings against three not-knowings. A whole ascent spent learning advance, preservation and gain, and never once practising the other half. At the highest point the missing half is what brings you down.
There is a line above the summit, and it repents
Most people take the fifth line for the end; the hexagram is not finished. Keep pushing in the same direction after the dragon is flying and you arrive at the top line. The problem with a peak is not the height, it is adding after you have reached it.
Most of those who double down straight after their best year are on their way to the top line.
What is missing is not the skill of advancing
To know advancing and not retreating. A run of good fortune trains half a person. Advance, preserve and gain become fluent; retreat, perish and lose are never rehearsed. What the summit calls for is precisely the unrehearsed half, which is why people fall.
Someone who has only ever added is clumsy the first time subtraction is the right move.
Repentance is not ruin, it is a warning
The line says repents, not disaster. The overreaching dragon does not necessarily die of the fall, but will certainly regret not having stopped at the fifth. It is written for someone still in the air: the position one step above yours is that one.
Reading this line while everything is still going well is worth more than reading it after the fall.
How do I use it today?
Where you are: a long run has gone your way and you are standing higher than you ever have, thinking about adding.
Ask first: am I at the fifth line or already at the top one, and have I ever practised retreat and loss, or only advance and gain?
Where it goes wrong: reading it as quit while ahead. The flying dragon at the fifth line is good and the hexagram wants the ascent; this says only that one more line exists above the peak.
Lines to keep
The overreaching dragon repents.
To know advancing and not retreating, gaining and not losing.
Above the summit there is one more line, and it repents.
Same situation, other people are asking
Everything's fine. What should I be getting ready for?To make this quarter I would squeeze the people carrying me.It is working. Should I go loud about it now?This is the highest I have ever been. Do I push for more?Things are going well and it scares me · all 11 questions →If this one named what you are going through,
send it to someone who needs it, or keep it somewhere you will find it again.