小過 → 升
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
義不勝情，以欲自營。覩利危躬，折角摧頸。
Duty cannot overcome desire; with greed he serves himself; seeing profit, he endangers his body; horns broken, neck snapped.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but righteousness cannot overcome desire — one manages affairs purely for self-interest. Seeing profit, one endangers oneself; horns are snapped and necks are broken. The verse anatomizes greed's mechanics: moral principle exists but cannot restrain appetite, and the pursuit of visible gain leads directly to physical destruction. The broken horns and crushed neck suggest a charging animal that runs headlong into a wall — force without wisdom. From Small Exceeding to Pushing Upward, the mountain's thunder descends into wood growing slowly within the earth — patient, incremental ascent. The verse inverts Pushing Upward's wisdom: instead of rising gradually through accumulated small steps, the greedy one lunges for the prize and shatters against what stands between.
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