Hexagram 7.5 — The Army (Fifth Line)

Original Text & Translation

「田有禽，利执言，无咎。长子帅师，弟子舆尸，贞凶。」 — When there is game in the field, it furthers one to catch it. No blame. The eldest son leads the army. The younger sons carry corpses. Persisting brings misfortune.

The image is of a hunt requiring coordination and skill. Game is present — opportunity exists, danger is real, action is necessary. But who leads matters decisively. The eldest son has experience, judgment, and the respect of the group. He knows when to strike and when to hold back. The younger sons, if given command, act rashly or hesitate wrongly, and the result is disaster: they carry corpses instead of trophies.

Core Meaning

Line five is the seat of authority in any hexagram. In The Army, this authority is tested by the need to organize collective action under pressure. The line teaches that leadership is not about personal heroism but about structural wisdom: appointing competent people, defining clear roles, and refusing to let sentiment or convenience override merit.

"The eldest leads" is a metaphor for experience and proven capacity. It does not mean literal age or seniority by title alone — it means the person who has demonstrated sound judgment, who understands the terrain, who can hold discipline under chaos. "The younger carry corpses" warns against promoting potential over performance, charm over competence, or loyalty over skill when the mission is critical.

This line also addresses the leader's own temptation to micromanage or to avoid delegation out of distrust. The hunt succeeds when the leader selects well and then steps back, allowing the chosen commander to act with full authority. Interference or second-guessing fractures the chain of command and invites failure.

Symbolism & Imagery

The hunt is an ancient image of coordinated effort with real stakes. It requires silence, patience, timing, and the ability to read signs in the environment. The eldest son knows the habits of the prey, the rhythm of the team, and the limits of the terrain. He does not rush; he does not freeze. He moves when the moment is ripe, and the group follows his signal.

The younger sons represent untested energy — enthusiasm without calibration, ambition without context. When they lead, the hunt becomes chaotic: arrows fly too soon, formations break, and the quarry escapes or turns dangerous. The corpses they carry are the cost of misplaced trust.

Water over earth (the structure of Hexagram 7) suggests that resources are abundant but must be channeled with discipline. The fifth line, a yin line in a yang position, embodies receptive authority — the leader who listens, observes, and appoints rather than dominating through force. This is the wisdom of knowing that strength is multiplied through others, not hoarded.

Action Guidance

Career & Business

• Audit your delegation: Are critical projects led by people with proven track records, or by those who are available, likable, or politically convenient? Realign roles to match capability with responsibility.
• Define clear authority: Once you delegate, grant full decision rights within agreed boundaries. Micromanagement signals distrust and fractures execution.
• Resist favoritism: Loyalty and potential matter, but in high-stakes situations, prioritize demonstrated competence and judgment. Promote based on results, not promises.
• Create succession clarity: Document who leads what under which conditions. Ambiguity in command creates hesitation and conflict when speed is essential.
• Debrief and iterate: After key initiatives, review what worked and what didn't. Use this to refine your model for selecting and empowering leaders.
• Know when to step back: If you've chosen well, your job is to provide resources and remove obstacles, not to direct every move. Trust the hunt to the hunter.

Love & Relationships

• Delegate with trust: In partnerships, identify who is better suited to handle specific domains (finances, logistics, emotional processing, social coordination). Let them lead in their areas.
• Avoid rescuing prematurely: If your partner or child is learning a new responsibility, give them room to struggle and succeed. "Carrying corpses" can mean over-functioning for others and stunting their growth.
• Choose advisors wisely: When facing relationship challenges, seek counsel from those with lived experience and emotional maturity, not just availability or agreement.
• Clarify roles in conflict: When tensions rise, agree on who will take the lead in resolution (the calm one, the articulate one, the one less triggered). Rotate as needed, but avoid both trying to command at once.
• Model merit-based respect: Show children and partners that respect is earned through consistency, skill, and care — not demanded by position or volume.

Health & Inner Work

• Delegate to your strengths: If you're better at discipline than motivation, build systems that automate willpower (meal prep, standing appointments, environment design). Let structure lead where emotion falters.
• Hire expertise: For chronic issues or performance goals, work with experienced practitioners (physical therapists, coaches, therapists) rather than improvising or following influencers.
• Sequence your efforts: Address foundational issues (sleep, pain, blood sugar stability) before layering advanced protocols. The "eldest" in health is boring consistency; the "younger" is supplement hype and biohacking without basics.
• Know your limits: Recognize when a problem is beyond self-management and requires professional intervention. Stubbornness here is the younger son leading — it produces casualties.
• Create accountability structures: Use coaches, partners, or tracking systems that provide external feedback and course correction.

Finance & Strategy

• Appoint experienced stewards: For significant capital decisions, consult or delegate to advisors with multi-cycle experience, not just recent winners or enthusiastic amateurs.
• Separate strategy from execution: Define the goal and risk parameters (the leader's role), then let the portfolio manager or operator execute within those bounds without constant interference.
• Vet track records: When choosing fund managers, partners, or service providers, prioritize demonstrated performance across different market conditions over marketing polish.
• Build redundancy in critical roles: Ensure that key financial functions (tax, compliance, treasury) have clear succession and backup. Single points of failure are vulnerabilities.
• Review and rebalance authority: Periodically assess whether the people managing your resources still have the skill and judgment they once did. Competence is not permanent; it must be re-earned.
• Avoid impulsive pivots: When markets shift, resist the urge to hand control to the loudest or most recent voice. Consult the experienced, the tested, the calm.

Timing, Signals, and Readiness

The fifth line appears when a decision about leadership or delegation is imminent. You may be choosing a project lead, hiring a key role, assigning a critical task, or deciding whether to intervene in someone else's work. The timing signal is this: the game is in the field — opportunity and risk are both present, and action cannot be delayed much longer.

Readiness is determined by clarity of criteria. Ask: What does success look like? What skills and judgment does it require? Who has demonstrated those qualities under pressure? If you can answer these questions concretely, you are ready to delegate. If your answers are vague or based on hope, you are not yet ready — clarify first, then choose.

Watch for these signs that you've chosen well: the person asks good questions, defines their own metrics, identifies risks early, and operates with calm confidence. Watch for these signs that you've chosen poorly: constant requests for direction, blame-shifting, over-promising, or visible panic under normal friction. Course-correct quickly if the latter appears.

When This Line Moves

A moving fifth line in The Army often signals a transition from delegation to outcome. If you have chosen well, the line's movement indicates that the campaign will succeed and order will be restored. If you have chosen poorly — out of sentiment, convenience, or misjudgment — the movement warns that the cost will become visible soon, and you will need to intervene or restructure.

The resulting hexagram (determined by your divination method) will show the nature of the transition. It may point toward consolidation and reward, or it may point toward necessary correction and the humility of learning from failure. In either case, the lesson remains: leadership is choosing the right people and giving them the authority to act.

Practical takeaway: if this line moves, review your recent delegations and appointments. Ensure that authority matches capability, that expectations are clear, and that you are prepared to support success or manage failure without blame or chaos.

Concise Summary

Hexagram 7.5 teaches that leadership is selection. When stakes are high and action is required, the right person must be given command. The eldest son — experienced, tested, and sound in judgment — leads the hunt successfully. The younger sons, if given authority prematurely, produce disaster. This line calls you to assess your delegations with rigor, to prioritize merit over convenience, and to trust those you choose with full authority. The game is in the field; choose your hunter wisely, and the hunt will succeed.