遯 → 大過
Hexagram 33: Retreat → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
Line 2
六二 執之用黃牛之革。莫之勝說。
Six in the second place means: he holds him fast with yellow oxhide. No one can tear him loose.
Line 6
上九 肥遯无不利。
Nine at the top means: Cheerful retreat. Everything serves to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
敝笱在梁，魴逸不禁，漁父勞苦，藏空乾口。
The tattered fish-trap sits on the weir; the bream escapes unchecked. The fisherman toils in vain; his stores are empty, his mouth parched.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven above the mountain sinks into lake over wind — Great Exceeding, where the ridgepole bends under unbearable weight. A broken fish trap lies on the weir, and the bream escape unchecked. The fisherman toils in vain, his basket empty, his mouth dry. The broken trap echoes the Shijing ode 'Bi Gou' from the Airs of Qi, which satirizes Duke Zhuang of Lu's inability to control his wife Wenjiang — the fish slip through because the trap is damaged beyond repair. From Retreat to Great Exceeding, the mountain's withdrawal becomes structural failure. The lake overwhelms the trees; the weight exceeds what the frame can bear. The retreating figure finds that his containment mechanisms have decayed during his absence — the trap is broken, the fish are gone, and labor produces nothing.
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