小過 → 同人
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 13: Fellowship
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 飛鳥以凶。
Six at the beginning means: The bird meets with misfortune through flying.
Line 5
六五 密雲不雨。自我西郊。公弋取彼在穴。
Six in the fifth place means: Dense clouds, No rain from our western territory. The prince shoots and hits him who is in the cave.
Line 6
上六 弗遇過之。飛鳥離之。凶。是謂災眚。
Six at the top means: He passes him by, not meeting him. The flying bird leaves him. Misfortune. This means bad luck and injury.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
被髮獸心，難與為鄰。來如風雲，去如絕絃，為狼所殘。
Disheveled hair and beast's heart, impossible to live beside; he comes like wind and cloud, departs like a broken string; savaged by wolves.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but the creature approaching has disheveled hair and a beast's heart — impossible to live beside. It arrives like wind and cloud, vanishes like a snapped string, and leaves behind only wolf-torn remains. The verse describes something that mimics fellowship but operates through predatory instinct: the wild hair signals abandonment of civilized norms, the beast-heart confirms it. The arrival is spectacular, the departure abrupt and total, the aftermath carnage. From Small Exceeding to Fellowship, the mountain's thunder shifts to heaven joined with fire — the image of kinship and shared purpose. But the verse inverts Fellowship's promise: this is anti-fellowship, a parody of community where the wolf wears human form and proximity means danger, not solidarity.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store