小過 → 解
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 40: Deliverance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 飛鳥以凶。
Six at the beginning means: The bird meets with misfortune through flying.
Line 2
六二 過其祖。遇其妣。不及其君。遇其臣。无咎。
Six in the second place means: She passes by her ancestor And meets her ancestress. He does not reach his prince And meets the official. No blame.
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 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
夏麥麩䵃，霜擊其芒。疾君敗國，使我誅傷。
Summer wheat turned to bran and chaff; frost has struck its awns; a ruler's sickness ruins the state, bringing punishment and harm to me.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but summer wheat is reduced to bran and chaff as frost strikes its awns at the wrong season. A malicious ruler ruins the state, bringing punishment and harm upon the people. Untimely frost on ripening wheat is a precise image of governmental sabotage: the crop was on schedule, the harvest was in sight, and then an external force intervened at the cruelest moment. The 'sick lord' (疾君) does not merely fail to govern — he actively corrupts, like frost falling in summer. From Small Exceeding to Deliverance, the mountain's thunder becomes thunder and rain together — the storm that breaks the tension. Deliverance arrives, but only after the wheat is already ruined. Relief comes too late to save the crop; it can only clear the ground for replanting.
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