小過 → 損
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 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 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
昧昧暗暗，不知白黑。風雨亂擾，光明伏匿，幽王失國。
Dark upon dark, dim upon dim; black and white cannot be known; wind and rain throw all into disorder; light and brightness lie hidden; King You loses his kingdom.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but all is murky and dim — one cannot distinguish white from black. Wind and rain churn in confusion, and brightness hides itself away. King You of Zhou loses his kingdom. King You (幽王), the last effective Western Zhou ruler, lit the beacon fires to amuse his concubine Bao Si, crying wolf until the lords refused to answer when real danger arrived. The Quanrong invaded, and the dynasty fell at Mount Li in 771 BC. His reign epitomizes the erasure of moral clarity: when the ruler cannot tell light from dark, the entire realm follows into blindness. From Small Exceeding to Decrease, the mountain's thunder subsides into a lake at the mountain's base — resources draining downward, strength ebbing away.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store