Work on the Decayed

Something has spoiled in the vessel: not your making, but now your mess. Work on the Decayed is the hexagram of inherited problems — the family pattern, the company habit, the system flaw that everyone stepped around until you arrived.

The counsel is threefold and unsentimental: name the decay before it names you; repair gently before it hardens; and pace yourself — three days before starting, three days after the great work, because clearing rot twice-dug is twice as deep. This is honourable work. It is not quick work.