Completion of the repair arrives at the fifth line, and it is met with praise rather than resistance. Legge's translation shows the son dealing with the troubles caused by his father and obtaining praise for using the fit instrument for his work, and the Little Symbolism explains the success by pointing downward, since this line is responded to by the second with the virtue proper to its place. The credit named here belongs to a correction carried out through the right person, not to one carried out alone.
Yielding in an odd position, the line is incorrect by the letter of the rule, yet it holds the central place of the upper trigram Gen and the seat of authority in the hexagram. Softness in that seat is what makes the response from below possible. A ruler insisting on repairing everything personally would have no use for the strong second line, and the fit instrument the text praises would never be picked up.
Set at the end of a hexagram that began in peril and passed through excess and indulgence, this is where Work on the Decayed succeeds in public. What earns the praise is not force, and not even diligence, but the judgment to know whose hands the inherited fault should be placed in.