旅 → 小過
Hexagram 56: The Wanderer → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 6).
Line 6
上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。
Nine at the top means: The bird's nest burns up. The wanderer laughs at first, Then must needs lament and weep. Through carelessness he loses his cow. Misfortune.
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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