Work on the Decayed, Line 5

Completion of the repair arrives at the fifth line, and it is met with praise rather than resistance. Legge's translation shows the son dealing with the troubles caused by his father and obtaining praise for using the fit instrument for his work, and the Little Symbolism explains the success by pointing downward, since this line is responded to by the second with the virtue proper to its place. The credit named here belongs to a correction carried out through the right person, not to one carried out alone.

Yielding in an odd position, the line is incorrect by the letter of the rule, yet it holds the central place of the upper trigram Gen and the seat of authority in the hexagram. Softness in that seat is what makes the response from below possible. A ruler insisting on repairing everything personally would have no use for the strong second line, and the fit instrument the text praises would never be picked up.

Set at the end of a hexagram that began in peril and passed through excess and indulgence, this is where Work on the Decayed succeeds in public. What earns the praise is not force, and not even diligence, but the judgment to know whose hands the inherited fault should be placed in.

Six in the fifth place is one of the more encouraging lines a querent can draw on a question about repairing something inherited. The praise the text names is explicit, and its cause equally so: the fit instrument was used. Readings landing here usually concern a correction that will succeed through delegation, appointment or partnership rather than through the querent's own unaided effort, and the whole recommendation is to identify the right hands and put the work into them.

The structural picture supports that reading directly. A yielding line holds the fifth place, central in the upper trigram Gen but incorrect for an odd position, and the Little Symbolism attributes its success to the response of the strong second line below. Authority here works by drawing capable help upward rather than by supplying strength itself, which is why the softness of the position is an asset rather than a defect.

The caution attached to this line is narrow but real. Praise arrives because the instrument was fit, so the querent's judgment about who does the work is the whole of the decision. A repair of long standing neglect placed in unsuitable hands would fail in exactly the same seat, and the text credits selection, not position, with the outcome.