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Hexagram 14 of 64

I Ching hexagram 14 ☲☰ Great Possession

I Ching hexagram 14, Great Possession, is fire above, heaven below. In brief: abundance held with responsibility. Its one broken line stands in place 5, counting from the bottom; the other five are solid.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚊⚊⚊⚋⚊ 111101 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Fire over Heaven Li ☲ / Qian ☰
Every line changed
№ 8 Holding Together
In Legge, 1882
p. 88 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 8, Holding Together, 13, Fellowship and 43, Breakthrough.

Also with Fire above: 21, Biting Through, 30, The Clinging and 35, Progress.

Also with Heaven below: 1, The Creative, 5, Waiting and 9, Small Taming.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 14: Great Possession

Upper trigram

☲

Fire (Li) above

Clarity and attachment.

FamilyMiddle daughter
ElementFire

Lower trigram

☰

Heaven (Qian) below

Creative force.

FamilyFather
ElementMetal

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 14

The Judgement

Great possession: abundance held with modesty. Wealth, influence or talent brings great success when it is used generously and without arrogance.

The Image

Fire high in the sky, lighting everything. The lesson is to promote what is good and restrain what is harmful, in keeping with the order of things.

A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →

Primary source

Hexagram 14 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“Tâ Yû indicates that, (under the circumstances which it implies), there will be great progress and success.”
The Image
“(The trigram for) heaven and (that of) fire above it form Tâ Yû The superior man, in accordance with this, represses what is evil and gives distinction to what is good, in sympathy with the excellent Heaven-conferred (nature).”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom In the first line, undivided, there is no approach to what is injurious, and there is no error. Let there be a realisation of the difficulty (and danger of the position), and there will be no error (to the end).
  2. Line 2 In the second line, undivided, we have a large waggon with its load. In whatever direction advance is made, there will be no error.
  3. Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows us a feudal prince presenting his offerings to the Son of Heaven. A small man would be unequal (to such a duty).
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject keeping his great resources under restraint. There will be no error.
  5. Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows the sincerity of its subject reciprocated by that of all the others (represented in the hexagram). Let him display a proper majesty, and there will be good fortune.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject with help accorded to him from Heaven. There will be good fortune, advantage in every respect.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 88 — read the original text. Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.

Great Possession for a decision

Resources are on your side. Use them boldly but humbly, and share the benefits — abundance that is hoarded or flaunted invites trouble.

I Ching 14 in love and relationships

Warmth, generosity and plenty. The risk is pride or taking what you have for granted.

Hexagram 14 at work

Success, visibility and influence. Handle it responsibly: fair dealing now secures the position for the long term.

The six lines of hexagram 14

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yang yang yin yang — what each position means.

Hexagram 14: Fire over Heaven
Hexagram 14, Great Possession, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 42Line 2 · yang, solidout of placeanswered by 53Line 3 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 64Line 4 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 15Line 5 · yin, brokenout of placeanswered by 26Line 6 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 3LowerQianHeavenUpperLiFireKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

Five lines are yang and one is yin. Two of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 2–5 answers.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Heaven below — creative force — is the private, inner side of hexagram 14.

Fire above — clarity and attachment — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Fire above controls Metal below. Circumstance restrains the inner position — pressure comes from the situation, not from within.

Read as a family

The middle daughter sits above and the father below. A child over a parent — an inversion of the expected order, and usually read as a situation where the junior position carries the initiative.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 14

Hexagram 43, Breakthrough

Nuclear hexagram

43 · Breakthrough

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Qian (Heaven) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Dui (Lake) as the upper.

Hexagram 8, Holding Together

Opposite hexagram

8 · Holding Together

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Fire over Heaven becomes Water over Earth.

Hexagram 13, Fellowship

Inverse hexagram

13 · Fellowship

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Fire over Heaven becomes Heaven over Fire.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Fire above, Heaven below.

Fire over Heaven: clarity and attachment meeting creative force.

← 13 · All 64 · 15 →

10 Treading 11 Peace 12 Standstill 13 Fellowship 15 Modesty 16 Enthusiasm 17 Following

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 88

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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