小過 → 无妄
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 25: Innocence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 5).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鸞鳳翱翔，集于喜國。念我伯姊，與母相得。
Phoenix and luan soar and glide, gathering in a land of joy; thinking of my elder sister, in harmony with mother.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain as phoenixes soar through the sky, alighting in a land of joy. One thinks of one's elder sister, who gets along well with mother. The verse is domestic felicity elevated to cosmic scale: the luan and feng (鸞鳳), the most auspicious of mythological birds, descend upon a blessed realm, and the family harmony below mirrors heaven's approval above. The elder sister's accord with the mother-in-law — often the most fraught relationship in traditional households — signals that even the most difficult bonds have been reconciled. From Small Exceeding to Innocence, the mountain's thunder becomes thunder rolling beneath heaven in pure spontaneity. The phoenixes choose their perch by instinct, not calculation; family harmony here is natural rather than engineered.
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