大過 → 家人
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
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 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
推輦上山，高仰重難。終日至暮，不見阜巔。
Pushing the cart uphill; lofty and steep, the burden heavy. From daybreak until dusk; the hilltop is never seen.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind enters wind above fire — the Family, where inner warmth radiates outward as gentle order. Pushing a handcart uphill, the slope is steep and the load unbearable. From dawn to dusk one labors, yet the summit never comes into view. The verse is pure Sisyphean struggle: exhausting effort against an incline that never relents, with the peak perpetually out of reach. The Family's image — wind emerging from fire — promises that warmth within generates gentle influence without, but this verse catches the moment before that promise is fulfilled. From Great Exceeding to the Family, the sagging beam is not yet repaired. The handcart pushing uphill is the household still struggling under its burden, the family order not yet established, the fire lit but its warmth not yet reaching the wind.
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