大過 → 明夷
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
Line 1
初六 藉用白茅。无咎。
Six at the beginning means: To spread white rushes underneath. No blame.
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
逐雁南飛，馬疾牛罷。不見魚池，失利憂危。牢戶之冤，脫免無患。
Chasing geese flying south; the horse is swift, the ox spent. The fish pond is not seen; profit lost, peril and worry. The prison’s wrong; released, escaping without harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind sinks into earth above fire — Darkening of the Light, where brilliance is driven underground. Chasing wild geese flying south, the horse gallops to exhaustion and the ox collapses. The fish pond is nowhere to be found; profit vanishes and worry mounts. Yet the verse ends: the prisoner's grievance is resolved, and he escapes unharmed. The verse traces a desperate pursuit that fails — southward-flying geese that cannot be caught, resources depleted in the chase — before pivoting to unexpected liberation. From Great Exceeding to Darkening of the Light, the overburdened beam drives brilliance into concealment. The pursuit of the geese is the futile chase after what has already departed. But within the darkness, a prison door opens: sometimes only by entering the earth can one find the hidden passage to freedom.
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