謙 → 大過
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5).
Line 2
六二 鳴謙。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Modesty that comes to expression. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 4
六四 无不利撝謙。
Six in the fourth place means: Nothing that would not further modesty In movement.
Line 5
六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: No boasting of wealth before one's neighbor. It is favorable to attack with force. Nothing that would not further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
北方多棗，橘柚所聚；荷囊載黍，盈我筐筥。
Abundant dates in the north; citrus and pomelo gathered there. Carrying grain sacks filled with millet; they fill our baskets and hampers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds the mountain, and the north country is rich with jujubes while citrus fruits gather in abundance. Carrying sacks of millet, the harvest fills baskets and containers to overflowing. The imagery is purely agricultural — the bounty of different regions combined, northern dates and southern oranges meeting in one storehouse. From Modesty to Great Exceeding, the lake submerges the trees, pressing beyond normal limits. Yet the verse shows the benign face of excess: not structural failure but overflowing abundance. The baskets are too full, the harvest exceeds expectation. Modesty's low-lying earth gathers produce from all directions, and when that gathering surpasses the ordinary, it becomes Great Exceeding — not as catastrophe but as the blessed burden of too much harvest.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store