咸 → 大過
Hexagram 31: Influence → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).
Line 2
六二 咸其腓。凶。居吉。
Six in the second place means: The influence shows itself in the calves of the legs. Misfortune. Tarrying brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
汎汎柏舟,流行不休。耿耿寤寐,公懷大憂,仁不遇時,退隱窮居。
Drifting, drifting, the cypress boat; it floats on without rest. Wakeful and restless through the night; the lord harbors a great sorrow. The benevolent one finds no fit time; he withdraws and hides in poverty.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake upon a mountain, but the waters carry a vessel of grief. A cypress boat drifts ceaselessly, unable to find harbor — an image drawn from the Shijing poem 'Baizhou' of the Bei winds, where a loyal minister adrift symbolizes the virtuous person unappreciated by his lord. Sleepless nights of anxious brooding, a duke burdened with great sorrow: benevolence finds no place in its time, and the worthy one retreats into impoverished seclusion. From Influence to Great Exceeding, the mountain's gentle receptivity becomes the lake submerging the trees — an extraordinary burden that overwhelms ordinary structures. The ridgepole sags under weight that cannot be borne. Yet Great Exceeding also counsels standing alone without fear. The recluse who withdraws from an unworthy age practices precisely that solitary courage.
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