豐 → 小過
Hexagram 55: Abundance → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
Line 1
初九 遇其配主。雖旬无咎。往有尚。
Nine at the beginning means: When a man meets his destined ruler, They can be together ten days, And it is not a mistake. Going meets with recognition.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
罟密網縮,動益蹶急,困不得息。
Nets thick, mesh tightened; every move only tangles more. Trapped and finding no rest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder and fire illuminate Abundance, and the verse describes total entrapment. Nets grow dense, meshes tighten; every movement only accelerates the snare. Trapped with no rest, struggling worsens the constraint. The imagery is of a creature — fish or animal — caught in a net where thrashing only draws the mesh closer. The three short phrases build claustrophobic momentum: dense nets, tighter mesh, exhausted struggle. From Abundance to Small Exceeding, thunder above the mountain: a small bird that should not fly too high or too far. The verse embodies Small Exceeding's core warning — when excess is applied in small matters, it creates inescapable constraint. The remedy is to 'exceed in deference, exceed in grief, exceed in thrift' — yield rather than fight the net.
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