Hexagram 18: 蠱

gǔ — detoxifying; bad medicine, toxins, fixations

Upper TrigramMountain
Lower TrigramWind

Judgment

蠱gǔdetoxifying; bad medicine, toxins, fixations
元yuánmost; first-rate, supreme, excellent
亨hēngfulfilling; fulfillment, satisfaction, success
利lìworthwhile, rewarding, favorable
涉shèto cross, ford, ferry, venture, experience
大dàthe great, big, major
川chuānstream, river, current, waters
先xiānbefore, prior to, ahead of
甲jiǎthe beginning, start, new cycle, departure
三sānthree
日rìdays
後hòuafter, subsequent to, following
甲jiǎthe beginning, start, new cycle, departure
三sānthree
日rìdays

Work on What Has Been Spoiled has supreme success. It furthers one to cross the great water. Before the starting point, three days. After the starting point, three days. The refactor will be difficult—crossing the great water always is—but it's the only path forward.

Image

山shāna mountain
下xiàbelow, beneath; at the base, foot of
有yǒuis, there is, was
風fēngwind
蠱gǔdetoxifying; fixation; decaying, stagnating
君jūnnoble, worthy, honored
子zǐyoung one, heir, disciple
以yǐaccordingly, therefore, thus
振zhènstimulates, arouses, stirs up, quickens
民mínthe people, public; society, humanity
育yùto nourish, foster, fortify, raise, bring up
德décharacter, virtue, merit, spirit, ability

The wind blows low on the mountain: the image of Decay. Thus the superior man stirs up public opinion and strengthens the spirit. The tech lead doesn't just fix the code—she documents the anti-patterns, conducts the lunch-and-learn, changes the culture that produced the mess.

Digital Artifact

Legacy Code Refactoring

Martin Fowler (1999)

Martin Fowler's 'Refactoring' confronts what every programmer inherits: code spoiled by previous decisions. Not malice—just entropy. Gentle indifference below (the wind, old habits) meets rigid inertia above (the mountain, institutional resistance). The result: technical debt, the bowl where worms breed. But here's the thing: what humans broke, humans can fix. You don't throw it away—you work on what's been spoiled. Three days before: understand the corruption's root cause. Three days after: ensure the new pattern holds. The refactoring isn't about blame; it's about recognizing that the father's rigid adherence to COBOL, the mother's weak validation logic—these were products of their time. You compensate. You don't rewrite from scratch—that's cowardice disguised as ambition. You take the legacy system, the codebase from 1987, and you carefully, methodically make it good again. Decay reversed through human work.

Historical Context

Period
Zhou Dynasty
Oracle Bone Etymology
Wind (☴) sits below, Mountain (☶) sits above—movement underneath stillness, creating stagnation.
Traditional Use
The classical text describes this as 'work on what has been spoiled'—not passive decay but active responsibility to repair what human fault has corrupted.

Lines

Line 1: 幹父之蠱有子考無咎厲終吉

幹gàncorrect, attend to, repair, rectifying
父fùfather
之zhī's; paternalistic
蠱gǔfixations, toxins, decadence, bad medicine
有yǒuif, where there is, one has; to be, have
子zǐa young one, child, heir
考kǎoto examine, investigate, in questioning
無wúno; not; is not; there is no; no harm done
咎jiùblame; wrong; mistake
厲lìdifficulty, hardships; distressing
終zhōngbut at, by, in the end; eventually, at last
吉jípromising, auspicious, hopeful

Line 2: 幹母之蠱不可貞

幹gàncorrect, attend to, repair, rectifying
母mǔmother
之zhī's; maternalistic
蠱gǔfixations, toxins, decadence, bad medicine
不bùno, not; un-; ill-
可kěcalling, acceptable for; suited, fitted to
貞zhēnpersistence, determination, resolve, firmness

Line 3: 幹父之蠱小有悔無大咎

幹gàncorrect, attend to, repair, rectifying
父fùfather
之zhī's; paternalistic
蠱gǔfixations, toxins, decadence, bad medicine
小xiǎothe small, petty, mediocre; a little
有yǒuthere will be; one has, will have
悔huǐregrets, remorse, repentance
無wúbut no, not, without, with no
大dàgreat, big, important, major, critical
咎jiùerror, mistake; blame, harm, wrong

Line 4: 裕父之蠱往見吝

裕yùtolerating, indulging, accepting, condoning
父fùfather
之zhī's; paternalistic
蠱gǔfixations, toxins, decadence, bad medicine
往wǎngto continue thus, go on, proceeding
見jiànmeets with, sees, encounters
吝lìndisgrace, embarrassment, shame, humiliation

Line 5: 幹父之蠱用譽

幹gàncorrect, attend to, repair, rectifying
父fùfather
之zhī's; paternalistic
蠱gǔfixations, toxins, decadence, bad medicine
用yònguse, apply, employ, practice, offer, try
譽yùpraise, respect, honor, recognition as due

Line 6: 不事王侯高尚其事

不bùdoes, will, would not; without; no
事shìserve, working for; work, business, affair
王wángof sovereign, king, ruler
侯hóuor noble, delegate, governor, chief
高gāoof noble, lofty, higher; exalted, superior
尚shàngworth, value, credit, honor
其qíone's own, this, such
事shìservice, work, concern, business, affair, task

Practical Guidance

You've inherited the codebase. It's bad. You know it's bad because you opened three files and saw the god-class that everyone warned you about, the bizarre coupling that makes no sense until you understand there was a deadline in Q3 2019 and someone chose survival over architecture. The corruption has a history. Before you touch a line—three days, the text says, but really: take time to understand why the rot exists. That god-class? Someone's attempt to manage complexity without proper abstractions. Your job is to understand, then plan your refactor. Small changes. Tests first. Feature flags so you can roll back when (not if) something breaks. After you deploy: watch it. Monitor the metrics. Make sure developers don't immediately revert to the comfortable old patterns. Cultural change takes longer than code change. Here's the danger: too little energy and you tolerate the rot, face humiliation when the system collapses. Too much energy and you break things, create new problems worse than the old ones. The middle path—vigorous but not violent, reforming but not revolutionary—that's what actually works. You're not erasing history. You're building on it, responsibly, like an adult.

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