豐 → 小過
Hexagram 55: Abundance → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).
Line 3
九三 豐其沛。日中見沬。折其右肱。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: The underbrush is of such abundance That the small stars can be seen at noon. He breaks his right arm. No blame.
Line 4
九四 豐其蔀。日中見斗。遇其夷主。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: The curtain is of such fullness That the polestars can be seen at noon. He meets his ruler, who is of like kind. Good fortune.
Line 6
上六 豐其屋。蔀其家。闚其戶。闃其无人。三歲不覿。凶。
Six at the top means: His house is in a state of abundance. He screens off his family. He peers through the gate And no longer perceives anyone. For three years he sees nothing. Misfortune.
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.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store