益 → 大過
Hexagram 42: Increase → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 利用為大作。元吉无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: It furthers one to accomplish great deeds. Supreme good fortune. No blame.
Line 2
六二 或益之十朋之龜。弗克違。永貞吉。王用享于帝吉。
Six in the second place means: Someone does indeed increase him; Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Constant perseverance brings good fortune. The king presents him before God. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 益之用凶事。无咎。有孚中行。告公用圭。
Six in the third place means: One is enriched through unfortunate events. No blame, if you are sincere And walk in the middle, And report with a seal to the prince.
Line 4
六四 中行。告公從。利用為依遷國。
Six in the fourth place means: If you walk in the middle And report the prince, He will follow. It furthers one to be used In the removal of the capital.
Line 6
上九 莫益之。或擊之。立心勿恆。凶。
Nine at the top means: He brings increase to no one. Indeed, someone even strikes him. He does not keep his heart constantly steady. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
堅冰黃鳥，常哀悲愁。不見白粒，但覩藜蒿。數驚鷙鳥，飄為我憂。
Hard ice and a yellow bird, forever wailing in sorrow. No white grain to be seen, only goosefoot and wormwood. Startled again and again by hunting hawks, drifting, a source of endless worry.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind and thunder bestow increase, but the transformation leads to the lake submerging the trees — the dangerous excess of Great Exceeding. Hard ice, a yellow bird singing in perpetual sorrow. No white grain is seen, only goosefoot and mugwort. Startled raptors scatter repeatedly, drifting anxiety all around. Every image compounds the desolation: winter's grip, mournful birdsong, famine replacing harvest, and predators in disarray. The yellow bird recalls the Shijing exile lament, a stranger finding no welcome in hostile territory. From Increase to Great Exceeding, the verse reveals the dark side of too much: excess pressure bends the ridgepole past its breaking point. What should have been a season of increase has produced only frozen ground, weeds instead of grain, and birds too frightened to settle.
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