大過 → 蒙
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 3
九三 棟橈。凶。
Nine in the third place means: The ridgepole sags to the breaking point. Misfortune.
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
陽失其紀，枯木復起。秋葉冬華，君不得息。
Yang has lost its order; the withered tree rises again. Autumn leaves, winter blossoms; the lord finds no rest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind descends into mountain above water — the bewilderment of Youthful Folly. Yang has lost its governing thread; dead wood sprouts again in defiance of nature. Autumn leaves and winter flowers appear, and the lord finds no rest. The verse paints a world of inverted seasons: when the cosmic order is disrupted, growth occurs at wrong times and in wrong forms. Dead trees blooming is an inauspicious omen in Han-era thought, signaling that what should be finished refuses to end properly. From Great Exceeding to Youthful Folly, the overburdened beam warps the natural order into confusion. The young fool cannot distinguish true vitality from false revival — autumn leaves masquerading as spring, winter blossoms that will bear no fruit.
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