旅 → 小過
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
Line 3
九三 旅焚其次。喪其童僕。貞厲。
Nine in the third place means: The wanderer's inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
依宵夜遊，與大君俱。除解煩惑，使我无憂。
Relying on the night to wander, in the company of a great lord. Dissolving vexation and confusion, freeing me from worry.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire on the mountain, and the traveler ventures out at night in the company of a great lord. Together they roam through the darkness, and all confusion and vexation dissolve — worry disappears entirely. The 'great lord' (大君) provides protection and purpose to the nocturnal journey, transforming a potentially dangerous wandering into a liberating excursion. From The Wanderer to Small Exceeding, thunder rumbles above the mountain, a slight excess of action over form. The verse captures the Small Exceeding spirit precisely: venturing beyond the norm — wandering at night, consorting with the powerful — yet remaining within the bounds of what the moment permits. Small transgressions in good company yield disproportionate relief.
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