剝 → 小過
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).
Line 1
初六 剝牀以足。蔑貞凶。
Six at the beginning means: The leg of the bed is split. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 3
六三 剝之无咎。
Six in the third place means: He splits with them. No blame.
Line 6
上九 碩果不食。君子得輿。小人剝廬。
Nine at the top means: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
陽不違德，高山多澤。顏子逐兔，未有所得。
Yang does not forsake virtue; high mountains have many marshes. Yanzi chases the rabbit; yet nothing is caught.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain upon earth decays into thunder above mountain — Small Exceeding, the hexagram of the small bird that should not fly too high. Yang does not depart from virtue; high mountains have many marshes. Yan Zi chases a rabbit but catches nothing. The opening line affirms cosmic regularity: yang upholds its moral order, and highland peaks gather moisture in their basins. But then comes Yan Zi — possibly the disciple Yan Hui or a figure named Yan — who pursues a rabbit in vain. The rabbit, quick and earthbound, escapes the one who chases it. From Splitting Apart to Small Exceeding, the mountain's decay leaves a smaller mound over which thunder rumbles disproportionately. Small Exceeding counsels modesty in action: 'In conduct, exceed in reverence; in mourning, exceed in grief; in expenditure, exceed in frugality.' Yan Zi's failed chase illustrates the futility of overreaching one's capacity.
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