小過

Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 31: Influence

小過
Small Exceeding
Thunder / Mountain
Influence
Lake / Mountain
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 5).

Line 5

六五 密雲不雨。自我西郊。公弋取彼在穴。

thick
yúnclouds
but
rain
coming from
our
西western
jiāohorizon
gōngeven a duke
bowhunts with tethered/harpoon arrows
preferring
that
zàiin
xuécave

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

Upper TrigramThunder LakeThe Arousing → The Joyous
Lower TrigramMountain Mountain

Yilin Verse

倉盈庾億,宜稼黍稷,年歲有息。

Grain piled like mountains — grinding never finishes. Fat chickens and stout geese fill the space between fences. Three jars of wine brewed, still seeming too few — borrowing bowls from the neighbor to send over fresh food.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Thunder rumbles above the mountain, and the original verse speaks of overflowing granaries and billions in store — a season perfect for planting millet and grain, with harvests that yield surplus year after year. The granary metaphor is both literal abundance and social capital: when stores overflow, neighbors share across the fence, and community solidifies. From Small Exceeding to Influence, the mountain's thunder transforms into a lake resting atop the mountain — the image of mutual responsiveness, where what is above draws from below and what is below ascends to meet it. The verse's abundance is not hoarded but exchanged: grain piled high invites sharing, and sharing generates the emotional bonds that Influence represents. Prosperity circulates; it does not merely accumulate.

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