小過 → 家人
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 飛鳥以凶。
Six at the beginning means: The bird meets with misfortune through flying.
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
不直莊公，與我爭訟。媒伯无禮，自令塞壅。
Duke Zhuang dealt unjustly, entering suit against me; the matchmaker violated propriety, bringing this blockage upon himself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but justice is absent. One accuses Duke Zhuang of impropriety, and litigation erupts. The matchmaker-elder acts without proper rites, and the result is obstruction and blockage. The verse likely involves a Spring and Autumn period dispute where a lord's conduct in marriage arrangements violated protocol — Duke Zhuang (莊公) of one state entangled in litigation over propriety, while the go-between who should have maintained decorum instead compounds the disorder. From Small Exceeding to the Family, the mountain's thunder transforms into wind issuing from fire — words that carry warmth and constancy. The verse inverts the Family ideal: where there should be harmonious domestic order, litigation and improper matchmaking produce only stagnation.
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