Hexagram 14: Possession in Great Measure

A woman emerges from fields of gold leaf and Byzantine ornament, her face and hands the only elements rendered as flesh. Klimt painted Adele Bloch-Bauer in 1907, surrounding his wealthy patron with layers of decorative abundance—geometric patterns, spiral motifs, Egyptian eyes, all executed in gold that catches light like burnished metal. The painting announces wealth not through depicted objects but through material itself—gold leaf applied so thickly the surface becomes relief, becomes treasure. Adele sits enthroned in her own abundance, prosperity made visible, great measure possessed and displayed.

This is Dà Yǒu (大有), the Chinese hexagram meaning "possession in great measure" or "great holdings." Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Fire (Lí) sits above Heaven (Qián): illuminating clarity above, creative force below, like the sun at midday shining down on all things, making everything visible, abundant, and accessible. Klimt's gold embodies this solar generosity—light transformed into substance, radiance you can touch. In Zhou Dynasty court divinations, this hexagram appeared during reigns of prosperity when granaries filled, when trade flourished, when the kingdom held great resources and displayed them without shame.

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The Judgment text declares the condition simply: "Supreme success." Prosperity this great requires no hedging, no qualification. Adele's wealth came from her husband's sugar refinery fortune, the sweet abundance of industrial-age Vienna. Klimt himself commanded extraordinary fees during his Golden Period—the art market boomed, patrons competed for his work, gold became his signature material. But the text adds crucial guidance: "His supreme success is due to his relationship with heaven, which illuminates, judges, and shapes all things from above." Great measure isn't hoarded; it circulates, illuminates, shapes what it touches. Adele became a patron of the arts herself, her salon gathering Vienna's intellectual elite. The wealth flows through her, not to her alone.

The Image Text offers counsel for managing abundance: "Fire in heaven above: the image of possession in great measure. Thus the superior person curbs evil and furthers good, and thereby obeys the benevolent will of heaven." Prosperity creates responsibility. Klimt's painting itself demonstrates this—commissioned for a private home, it became one of Austria's most recognized artworks, reproducible abundance spreading from singular possession. Song Dynasty officials understood this hexagram as the moment when good governance produces surplus, when abundance allows support for culture, scholarship, public works. In the I-Ching's sequence, Dà Yǒu follows Fellowship: when people work together openly, wealth accumulates. The next hexagram is Modesty—a warning that great possession without humility breeds resentment, that abundance handled proudly turns to its opposite.