小過 → 夬
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
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 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
六疾生狂,癡走妄行。北入患門,與禍為鄰。
Six ailments breed madness; deranged, he walks and wanders wildly; north through the gate of calamity, becoming neighbor to disaster.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but six afflictions breed madness — one rushes about in delusion, acting without reason. Heading north, one enters the gate of calamity and becomes disaster's neighbor. The 'six ailments' (六疾) may refer to the six pathogenic factors of classical medicine or six accumulated errors of governance. The northward movement is ominous: north in traditional cosmology is the direction of darkness and water, associated with danger and the dead. From Small Exceeding to Breakthrough, the mountain's thunder becomes the lake rising to heaven — decisive rupture that sweeps away what is rotten. But the verse shows someone who breaks through in the wrong direction: instead of clearing away evil, the madman breaks through into disaster, mistaking the gate of ruin for the path of liberation.
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