兌 → 小過
Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 孚兌吉。悔亡。
Nine in the second place means: Sincere joyousness. Good fortune. Remorse disappears.
Line 4
九四 商兌未寧。介疾有喜。
Nine in the fourth place means: Joyousness that is weighed is not at peace. After ridding himself of mistakes a man has joy.
Line 5
九五 孚于剝。有厲。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sincerity toward disintegrating influences is dangerous.
Line 6
上六 引兌。
Six at the top means: Seductive joyousness.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
羅網四張，鳥无所翔。征伐困極，飢窮不食。
Heaven's net, earth's snare — no crack or seam. Walls on left and right, hooks above and below. Grain exhausted, water cut off — people trapped in defense. Inside the iron city, bones pile into mounds.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Paired lakes meet thunder above the mountain — Small Exceeding, where the small bird must not fly too high. The original verse describes nets spread in all four directions, leaving birds nowhere to soar. Military campaigns reach the point of exhaustion; the starving receive nothing to eat. Siege warfare at its most absolute: every escape route sealed, every resource consumed. From The Joyous to Small Exceeding, the verse inverts joy into total entrapment. Small Exceeding counsels the small bird to descend rather than ascend — but here, descending is impossible too. The nets are above and below. When exceeding one's capacity meets inescapable enclosure, even the smallest movement becomes fatal.
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