小過 → 兌
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 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 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
含血走禽，不曉五音。匏巴鼓瑟，不悅於心。
A blood-mouthed running beast, knowing nothing of the five tones; even Bao Ba playing the zither brings no joy to its heart.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but the blood-mouthed beast that runs through the wilds knows nothing of the five musical tones. Even when Bao Ba plays his zither — the legendary musician whose art could make fish leap from water and horses abandon their feed — the creature's heart remains unmoved. The verse contrasts the pinnacle of aesthetic refinement with brute animal indifference. Bao Ba (匏巴) was a zither master whose skill allegedly stirred all living things, yet even his art cannot penetrate a nature fundamentally incapable of receiving it. From Small Exceeding to the Joyous, the mountain's thunder gives way to paired lakes — mutual delight, shared discourse. But joy requires the capacity for receptivity, and the beast that cannot hear music cannot participate in the Joyous. Delight is wasted on the unreceptive.
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