革 → 小過
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 5).
Line 1
初九 鞏用黃牛之革。
Nine at the beginning means: Wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow.
Line 5
九五 大人虎變。未占有孚。
Nine in the fifth place means: The great man changes like a tiger. Even before he questions the oracle He is believed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
岐周海隅，獨樂不憂。可以避難，全身保才。
At Qi and Zhou, by the sea's corner; alone in joy, without worry. Here one may escape calamity, preserving the self and protecting one's gifts.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake yields to thunder above the mountain — Small Exceeding, where one must exceed slightly in the small things: humility, thrift, and grief. Qi and Zhou mark the far corners — from the Zhou heartland in the west to the sea's edge. There one finds solitary joy without worry, a place to avoid disaster, preserving one's person and protecting one's talent. The verse describes a refuge at the margins: the Zhou ancestral land of Qishan and the distant coast. Like the Small Exceeding bird that must fly low to survive, one retreats to modest shelter. From Revolution to Small Exceeding, the transformation counsels that after upheaval, survival lies in staying small, staying quiet, and staying at the periphery where the storm cannot reach.
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