Hexagram 55: Abundance

Itō Jakuchū painted a vivid scene of a rooster and hen beneath blooming hydrangeas, azaleas, and roses in 1759. The male bird's plumage explodes in brilliant detail—red comb, iridescent tail feathers, sharp spurs catching light. The female's quieter tones complement rather than compete. Above them, flowers mass in layered abundance: purple hydrangea clusters, pink azalea blooms, white roses opening. This scroll formed part of Jakuchū's thirty-painting series "Colorful Realm of Living Beings," created for Kyoto's Shōkoku-ji temple. Every inch teems with life at its fullest expression—feathers, petals, leaves rendered with obsessive precision.

This is Fēng (豐), the Chinese hexagram of Abundance. The character originally depicted a ritual vessel overflowing with offerings, representing fullness and prosperity at their zenith. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Thunder (Zhèn) sits above Fire (Li): movement combines with clarity to produce maximum yang energy at peak expression. Jakuchū's painting demonstrates this principle through accumulated visual richness—the rooster's display, the hen's fertility, the garden's bloom all coinciding in a single moment of culminating plenty.

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The Judgment declares: "Abundance has success. The king attains abundance. Be not sad. Be like the sun at midday." The ancient text counsels against sadness during abundance because fullness contains its own warning—the sun at noon begins its descent in the next instant. Jakuchū created this series during Japan's Edo period florescence, when urban merchant culture supported elaborate artistic production. The thirty scrolls took years to complete, each one displaying virtuoso technique and lavish materials. Classical commentaries note that Fēng appears at civilization's peaks—when cultural, material, and political forces align to produce spectacular achievement. Zhou Dynasty texts reference King Wen encountering this hexagram at the height of his power.

The Image Text states: "Both thunder and lightning come: the image of Abundance. Thus the superior man decides lawsuits and carries out punishments." Thunder and lightning together create summer storms of maximum intensity—arousing power made visible through brilliant flash. At the peak of abundance, the wise ruler exercises clear judgment precisely because conditions permit decisive action. Jakuchū's technical mastery allows him to render each feather separately, each petal distinctly. Yet abundance requires careful tending—the painting preserves this moment of fullness knowing it cannot last. In the hexagram sequence, Abundance follows The Marrying Maiden: after warning against improper foundations comes the achievement of proper fullness, though even at the zenith, decline waits.