小過 → 觀
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 20: Contemplation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 3
九三 弗過防之。從或戕之。凶。
Nine in the third place means: If one is not extremely careful, Somebody may come up from behind and strike him. Misfortune.
Line 4
九四 无咎。弗過遇之。往厲必戒。勿用永貞。
Nine in the fourth place means: No blame. He meets him without passing by. Going brings danger. One must be on guard. Do not act. Be constantly persevering.
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
攘臂反肘,怒不可二。佷戾腹心,无以為市。
Baring arms and thrusting elbows, rage that cannot be shared; a perverse and stubborn heart leaves no one to trade with.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, and an arm swings back with elbow reversed in violent gesture — rage that cannot be duplicated or shared. A ruthless, perverse heart festers within, and no marketplace can function under such conditions. The verse captures the anatomy of tyrannical anger: the reversed elbow (反肘) suggests force turned inward or misdirected, while the destroyed marketplace signals the collapse of civil exchange. When the ruler's fury becomes ungovernable, commerce — the baseline of social cooperation — ceases. From Small Exceeding to Contemplation, the mountain's thunder transforms into wind moving across the earth, surveying all from above. The shift is from blind rage to panoramic vision: Contemplation offers the perspective that fury forecloses, seeing the whole where anger saw only the provocation.
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