小過 → 歸妹
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
失恃无友，嘉福出走，傫如喪狗。
Losing support, without friends; blessings and fortune have fled; dejected like a homeless dog.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but one has lost all support and has no allies — good fortune has fled, and one wanders abject as a homeless dog. The phrase 傫如喪狗 ('dejected like a dog at a funeral') is famously applied to Confucius himself: when he wandered between the states, someone described him as looking like a bereaved dog between funerals — exhausted, unwanted, belonging nowhere. The verse strips away every prop: no patron, no friend, no luck. From Small Exceeding to the Marrying Maiden, the mountain's thunder descends into thunder above the lake — an unequal union, a subordinate position. The Marrying Maiden enters a household where she has no standing; the masterless wanderer enters a world that has no place for him.
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