大過 → 遯
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 33: Retreat
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
九二 枯楊生稊。老夫得其女妻。无不利。
Nine in the second place means: A dry poplar sprouts at the root. An older man takes a young wife. Everything furthers.
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
坐席未溫，憂來扣門。踰墻北走，兵交我後。脫於虎口。
The seat not yet warm; worry comes knocking at the gate. Leaping the wall, fleeing north; soldiers clash behind me. Escaping from the tiger’s mouth.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind flees into heaven above mountain — Retreat, the timely withdrawal from danger. The seat is not yet warm when worry knocks at the door. One leaps over the wall and runs north; soldiers clash behind. Yet one escapes the tiger's mouth. The verse is a breathless vignette of flight: barely arrived, already fleeing, scrambling over walls with armies in pursuit. The 'seat not yet warm' is a proverb for having no time to settle before crisis strikes. From Great Exceeding to Retreat, the collapsing structure compels immediate evacuation. Retreat's wisdom is not cowardice but survival instinct — heaven rising above the mountain, withdrawing to higher ground. The one who flees lives; the one who stays to defend the crumbling beam is crushed beneath it.
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