歸妹 → 大過
Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden → Hexagram 28: Great Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5).
Line 1
初九 歸妹以娣。跛能履。征吉。
Nine at the beginning means: The marrying maiden as a concubine. A lame man who is able to tread. Undertakings bring good fortune.
Line 3
六三 歸妹以須。反歸以娣。
Six in the third place means: The marrying maiden as a slave. She marries as a concubine.
Line 5
六五 帝乙歸妹。其君之袂。不如其娣之袂良。月幾望吉。
Six in the fifth place means: The sovereign I gave his daughter in marriage. The embroidered garments of the princess Were not as gorgeous As those of the serving maid. The moon that is nearly full Brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
弊鏡无光，不見文章。少女不嫁，棄於其公。
The worn mirror has no light; it cannot show the pattern. The young woman goes unmarried, abandoned by her lord.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over lake shifts to lake over wind: the maiden's failed union encounters Great Exceeding's unbearable weight. A tarnished mirror has lost its light and reflects no pattern. A young woman goes unmarried, abandoned by her lord. The mirror's dimness and the maiden's rejection form a single image of diminished worth. From the Marrying Maiden to Great Exceeding, the ridgepole sags under impossible burden: the lake submerges the wind-wood below, and the lone individual must stand upright despite the world's collapse. Great Exceeding demands extraordinary measures in extraordinary times. The abandoned maiden, like the tarnished mirror, lacks the recognition needed to play her proper role. Her situation calls for the independent courage that Great Exceeding prescribes: to stand alone without fear.
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