小過 → 節

Commentary

Thunder rumbles above the mountain, but the mountain collapses and the valley is severed — great blessings cease entirely. The Jing and Wei rivers lose their order, and jade and stone are finished alike. The Jing and Wei (涇渭) were proverbially distinct — one clear, one muddy — and their 'losing order' (失紀) means the fundamental principle of differentiation has collapsed. When you can no longer tell jade from stone, value itself dissolves. The verse describes total systemic failure: geography ruptures, rivers merge indistinguishably, and quality distinctions vanish. From Small Exceeding to Limitation, the mountain's thunder becomes water resting above the lake — measured containment. But the verse shows what happens when limitation comes too late: the structures that should have set boundaries have already shattered, and no amount of regulation can restore what has been obliterated.