小過 → 艮
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初六 飛鳥以凶。
Six at the beginning means: The bird meets with misfortune through flying.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
過時不歸，雌雄苦悲。徘徊外國，與母分離。
Border geese fly south — the formation is broken. A lone shadow drops into the reeds. Searching everywhere for companions, no call answers — cold moonlight on the river, the traveler has not returned.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but the original verse tells of one who fails to return on time — male and female mourn bitterly, wandering in foreign lands, separated from their mother. A lone goose falls behind its formation, its shadow sinking into the reeds along a moonlit river, searching for companions who no longer answer. The verse embodies the pain of delayed homecoming stretched into permanent exile. From Small Exceeding to Keeping Still, thunder above the mountain settles into doubled mountain — absolute stillness, cessation of all movement. The bird that was flying has stopped; the one who was traveling has become fixed in foreign soil. Keeping Still here is not tranquil meditation but the terrible stillness of someone who has simply stopped trying to return.
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