大過 → 比
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
衰滅無成，淵溺在傾。狗吠夜驚，家乃不寧。枯者復華，幽人無憂。
Decline and ruin bring no success; the abyss tilts toward collapse. Dogs bark, the night is alarmed; the household finds no peace. The withered blooms again; the recluse has no worry.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind yields to water resting upon earth — Holding Together. Decline and ruin leave nothing accomplished; one teeters at the brink of the abyss. Dogs bark in the night, startling the household into unease. Then the verse pivots: withered things bloom again, and the recluse finds peace. The three-part structure traces a full arc — collapse, nocturnal alarm, and unexpected renewal. Night-barking dogs in Han omen-lore signal ghostly disturbance, yet here the disturbance passes without lasting harm. From Great Exceeding to Holding Together, the sagging beam finds support through alliance. The recluse who weathered decline discovers that solidarity with earth — the humble act of holding together — restores what isolation nearly destroyed.
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