臨 → 大過
Hexagram 19: Approach → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 5).
Line 1
初九 咸臨貞吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Joint approach. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
六三 甘臨。无攸利。既憂之。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Comfortable approach. Nothing that would further. If one is induced to grieve over it, One becomes free of blame.
Line 4
六四 至臨。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: Complete approach. No blame.
Line 5
六五 知臨。大君之宜。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Wise approach. This is right for a great prince. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
采唐沫鄉,要期桑中;失信不會,憂思約帶。
Gathering dodder at Mo village, arranging a tryst among the mulberry trees; breaking faith, we did not meet -- longing and worry tighten my sash.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above the lake enters the lake submerging the trees — Great Exceeding's structural crisis. The verse alludes to the Shijing ode 'Sang Zhong': gathering tang-grass at Mei, a tryst arranged among the mulberries. But the lover breaks the promise and does not appear. Longing and anxiety tighten the belt — the abandoned one wastes away. From Approach to Great Exceeding, what should be a nurturing meeting becomes an insupportable weight. The lake overwhelms the trees of Xun below: the ridgepole sags under emotional excess. The broken tryst is not merely personal disappointment but structural failure — a weight-bearing relationship that was expected to hold the frame together has snapped, and the whole edifice leans dangerously.
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