无妄 → 大過
Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 6).
Line 1
初九 无妄。往吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Innocent behavior brings good fortune.
Line 2
六二 不耕穫。不菑畬。則利有攸往。
Six in the second place means: If one does not count on the harvest while plowing, Nor on the use of the ground while clearing it, It furthers one to undertake something.
Line 3
六三 无妄之災。或繫之牛。行人之得。邑人之災。
Six in the third place means: Undeserved misfortune. The cow that was tethered by someone Is the wanderer's gain, the citizen's loss.
Line 6
上九 无妄。行有眚。无攸利。
Nine at the top means: Innocent action brings misfortune. Nothing furthers.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
東西觸垣，不利出門。魚藏深水，無以樂賓。爵級摧頹，光威減衰。
Bumping the wall east and west; ill-favored to go out the gate. Fish hide in deep water; no way to entertain guests. Rank and title crumble; glory and power decline.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Bumping into walls east and west, it is inauspicious to leave the gate. Fish hide in deep water, unable to entertain guests. Rank and title crumble; authority and prestige fade. From Innocence to Great Exceeding, the transformation registers the moment when structural limits are breached. Daguo's image of the lake submerging the trees signals a crisis of overwhelming pressure — the ridgepole sags. The verse's claustrophobic imagery — walls on every side, fish retreating to the depths — captures the collapse of social position under unbearable strain. What was once innocence becomes isolation; what was honest simplicity becomes inadequacy. The exceeding weight of circumstance crushes what cannot bear it.
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