隨 → 大過
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
Line 1
初九 官有渝。貞吉。出門交有功。
Nine at the beginning means: The standard is changing. Perseverance brings good fortune. To go out of the door in company Produces deeds.
Line 2
六二 係小子。失丈夫。
Six in the second place means: If one clings to the little boy, One loses the strong man.
Line 3
六三 係丈夫。失小子。隨有求得。利居貞。
Six in the third place means: If one clings to the strong man, One loses the little boy. Through following one finds what one seeks. It furthers one to remain persevering.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
雀目燕顙，畏昏無光；思我狡童，不見子充。
Sparrow eyes, swallow forehead, fearing the dark and lacking light; I long for my handsome lad, but do not see young Zi Chong.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, but sparrow-eyes and a swallow's brow signal poor vision in the gathering dusk. Fearful of the dark, unable to see, the speaker yearns for a handsome youth but cannot find Zi Chong — an allusion to the Shijing ode 'Zi Chong' from the Zheng Feng, where a woman longs for her absent lover: 'I think of my roguish lad, but Zi Chong is nowhere to be seen.' The verse layers physical blindness over emotional longing: desire follows its object into darkness but cannot locate it. From Following to Great Exceeding, the lake overwhelms the trees below — excess emotion in failing light, a search pressed beyond the limits of what vision can sustain.
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