大過 → 師
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 7: The Army
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
啟室開關，逃得釋冤。夏臺羑里，湯文悅喜。
The chamber opens, the gate unlocks; escaping, the wrong is released. Xiatai, Youli; Tang and Wen rejoice in gladness.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind transforms into earth concealing water — the Army's disciplined response. The chamber opens, the gate unlocks, and the prisoner escapes his grievance. Xiatai and Youli — the prisons where King Tang and King Wen were unjustly held — become places of deliverance rather than despair. Tang and Wen emerge rejoicing. The verse pairs the two foundational imprisonments of Chinese political mythology: Tang held by Jie of Xia, Wen held by Zhou of Shang. Both endured confinement and emerged to found righteous dynasties. From Great Exceeding to the Army, the collapsing structure becomes organized force: what was unbearable pressure transforms into the disciplined power that liberates. The prison door opens not by accident but because the weight of injustice finally compels its own reversal.
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