大過 → 小畜
Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
西鄰少女，未有所許。志如委衣，不出房戶。心無所處，傅母何咎？
The young woman of the western village; not yet betrothed to any. Her will like cast-off garments; she does not leave her chamber. Her heart has no settled place; what fault lies with the chaperone?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake over wind softens into wind above heaven — the gentle restraint of Small Taming. A young woman of the western neighbor remains unpromised in marriage. Her will is like a discarded garment, listless; she does not leave her chamber. Her heart has nowhere to settle — how can the chaperone be blamed? The verse portrays paralysis of will rather than active misfortune: a maiden old enough to marry but unable to commit, confined not by walls but by indecision. The chaperone (傅母) appears as the ritual guardian of propriety, echoing Lady Boji's fateful dependence on her chaperone. From Great Exceeding to Small Taming, overwhelming pressure shrinks into gentle but ineffectual restraint — wind that stirs heaven's surface without moving it. The maiden's inaction mirrors this: energy present but unable to achieve release.
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