Hexagram 26: The Taming Power of the Great

Powerful draft horses rear and surge forward, their muscular bodies restrained by handlers at the Paris horse market on Boulevard de l'Hôpital. Rosa Bonheur painted this monumental scene between 1852 and 1855, spending eighteen months sketching at the market to study how great force is channeled and controlled. The horses' wild energy meets human skill—neither dominates, but together they create directed power. Dust rises, hooves strike pavement, handlers lean into their work.

This is Da Chu (大畜), the Chinese hexagram of Great Accumulating Force. Mountain (Gen) sits above Heaven (Qian): stillness holds the creative in check, containing rather than opposing it. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when immense energy required patient taming before useful deployment. The character 畜 depicts livestock—animals whose natural strength serves human purposes through gradual habituation, not breaking. Bonheur's handlers don't fight the horses but redirect their momentum through practiced positioning and timing.

{artwork_reasoning}

The Judgment text speaks to contained power: "It furthers one to cross the great water." Great undertakings become possible, but only after force is properly accumulated and directed. In Zhou Dynasty statecraft, this hexagram appeared when rulers needed to harness military might, channel economic resources, or cultivate talented officials over years before deployment. The horses represent strength in training—the market itself a liminal space where raw power transitions toward purposeful service. Bonheur painted during France's Second Empire, when industrial energy was reshaping European society; her horses embody that transitional tension between nature and civilization.

The Image Text advises: "The superior person acquaints himself with many sayings of antiquity and many deeds of the past in order to strengthen his character." Accumulation applies to learning as to livestock—traditional wisdom gradually internalized until it shapes response. The handlers in Bonheur's painting carry accumulated generations of equestrian knowledge in their bodies. In the I-Ching's sequence, Great Accumulating Force follows Innocence: after natural correctness (25) comes the patient gathering and directing of great energies (26). The horses, massive and turbulent, await the crossing of great waters—but not yet. First, the taming.