大過 → 解
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 棟橈。凶。
Nine in the third place means: The ridgepole sags to the breaking point. Misfortune.
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
高山之巔，去谷億千。雖有兵寇，足以自守。
The high mountain’s peak; ten thousand fathoms from the valley. Though there be soldiers and bandits; it is enough to hold and defend.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind rises to thunder above water — Deliverance, the release of tension after the storm. A high mountain peak stands a thousand miles from the valley floor. Though brigands and invaders threaten, the position is sufficient for self-defense. The verse celebrates natural stronghold: altitude as security, distance as protection. The mountain needs no walls because its very height deters attack. From Great Exceeding to Deliverance, the sagging beam finds relief in the thunderstorm that clears the air. Deliverance is the moment after rain, when pressure lifts. Here the mountain peak embodies that relief — so far above the valley's troubles that even armed enemies cannot reach it. The excess that burdened the structure has been converted into elevation, and elevation itself becomes the deliverance.
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