大過 → 蠱
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 18: Work on the Decayed
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 4, 5, 6).
Line 4
九四 棟隆。吉。有它吝。
Nine in the fourth place means: The ridgepole is braced. Good fortune. If there are ulterior motives, it is humiliating.
Line 5
九五 枯楊生華。老婦得其士夫。无咎无譽。
Nine in the fifth place means: A withered poplar puts forth flowers. An older woman takes a husband. No blame. No praise.
Line 6
上六 過涉滅頂。凶。无咎。
Six at the top means: One must go through the water. It goes over one's head. Misfortune. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
膠車駕東，與雨相逢。故革懈惰，頹輪獨坐。憂不為禍。
A glue-sealed cart drives east; it meets the rain upon the road. Old leather, slack and worn; the wheel collapses, he sits alone. Worry does not become disaster.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind meets mountain above wind — Work on the Decayed, where corruption must be addressed. A glued cart drives east and meets the rain. The old leather slackens and loosens; the wheels collapse, and one sits alone amid ruin. Yet worry does not become disaster. Gluing a cart is a proverb for improvised, inadequate repair — the kind that fails at the first test. Rain dissolves the glue, the decrepit vehicle falls apart, and the traveler is stranded. But the verse's final line offers consolation: the anticipated catastrophe does not fully materialize. From Great Exceeding to Work on the Decayed, the overburdened structure reveals its rot. The glued cart is the decayed institution — patched rather than rebuilt. Honest collapse, paradoxically, prevents worse outcomes than continued pretense of soundness.
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