小過

Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding

Peace
Earth / Heaven
小過
Small Exceeding
Mountain / Thunder
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).

Line 2

九二 包荒。用馮河。不遐遺。朋亡。得尚于中行。

bāoembrace
huāngthe wilderness
yòngpractical
píngto cross
river
avoid
xiáaloofness
neglect
péngcompanions
wángimpermanent
learn
shàngthe value
in
zhōngbalanced
xíngaction

Nine in the second place means: Bearing with the uncultured in gentleness, Fording the river with resolution, Not neglecting what is distant, Not regarding one's companions: Thus one may manage to walk in the middle.

Line 3

九三 无平不陂。无往不復。艱貞无咎。勿恤其孚。于食有福。

there is not
pínglevel
without
slope
there is no
wǎnggoing
without
return
jiāndifficult
zhēnto persist
without
jiùmistake
do not
worry
these
certainties
in
shínourishment
yǒufind
happiness

Nine in the third place means: No plain not followed by a slope. No going not followed by a return. He who remains persevering in danger Is without blame. Do not complain about this truth; Enjoy the good fortune you still possess.

Line 6

上六 城復于隍。勿用師。自邑告命。貞吝。

chéngthe city walls
falls back
into
huángthe moat (a dry ditch at the base of a wall)
do not
yòngengage
shīthe military
in
home town
gàoannounce
mìngthe decree
zhēnto persist
lìnembarrassing

Six at the top means: The wall falls back into the moat. Use no army now. Make your commands known within your own town. Perseverance brings humiliation.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramEarth MountainThe Receptive → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramHeaven ThunderThe Creative → The Arousing

Yilin Verse

桃李花實,累累日息;長大成熟,甘美可食,為我利福。

Peach and plum bear flower and fruit, swelling day by day. Growing large and ripening; sweet and delicious, fit to eat. They become our blessing and gain.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Earth above heaven, Peace brings the orchard to fruition. Peach and plum trees produce their fruit in abundant clusters, growing larger and ripening day by day until they are sweet and ready to eat, becoming one's blessing and benefit. The verse is purely auspicious — no shadow, no complication, just the natural fulfillment of the growth cycle. Trees planted in fertile soil under favorable conditions produce exactly what they should. From Peace to Small Exceeding, thunder rumbles above the mountain, and the gentleman exceeds in reverence, grief, and frugality. The transformation adds a gentle caution to the abundance: even amid plenty, the small excess of care — a little more humility, a little more restraint — protects the harvest.

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