小過 → 小畜
Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding → Hexagram 9: Small Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5).
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.
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
大椎破轂，長舌亂國。墻茨之言，三世不安。
The great axle-pin smashes the wheel-hub; a long tongue throws the nation into chaos; the words of the thorn-hedge bring three generations without peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rumbles above the mountain, and a massive linchpin shatters the wheel hub — brute force misapplied to a delicate mechanism. A long, wagging tongue throws the state into turmoil. The gossip behind the thorn-hedge wall (牆茨) unsettles three generations. The phrase 牆茨之言 alludes to the Odes poem 'Qiang Ci' (牆有茨), which describes scandalous words overheard through palace walls — secrets that should remain hidden but leak out, poisoning court politics for generations. From Small Exceeding to Small Taming, thunder above the mountain shifts to wind moving gently over heaven. But the wind here carries poison: gossip is a gentle force that accumulates devastating effect. What small restraint should contain — a whispered rumor, a careless word — instead proliferates, and the taming fails.
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