噬嗑 → 小過
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).
Line 1
初九 履校滅趾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: His feet are fastened in the stocks, So that his toes disappear. No blame.
Line 3
六三 噬腊肉。遇毒。小吝。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Bites on old dried meat And strikes on something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame.
Line 6
上九 何校滅耳。凶。
Nine at the top means: His neck is fastened in the wooden cangue, So that his ears disappear. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
陳蔡之危，從者飢罷；明德上通，憂不為凶。
The peril of Chen and Cai; the followers starved and spent. Bright virtue reaches heaven above -- worry does not turn to misfortune.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, and here the sage endures its harshest application. The hardship at Chen and Cai — Confucius besieged between two states, his followers starving for seven days, too exhausted to stand. Yet brilliant virtue penetrates upward to heaven, and despite the suffering, worry does not become true misfortune. The story is one of the most famous in Confucian tradition: the Master's equanimity amid privation, his refusal to compromise his principles even when food runs out. From Biting Through to Small Exceeding, thunder rumbles above the mountain as the small bird flies too high. The verse embodies Small Exceeding's teaching: in extremity, exceed in humility and caution — the sage's moral light reaches heaven precisely because he does not overreach.
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