䷽Small ExceedingXiǎo Guò

The judgment

亨。利贞。可小事，不可大事。飞鸟遗之音，不宜上宜下，大吉

Thunder on the ridge sounds larger than it is and travels no further. Small overstepping is the useful size here, and a large one on this ground has nowhere to land.

The image

Thunder rolls along a ridge and the sound passes over the valley. Small errors stay cheap where the ground is narrow.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.

1. 初六Line 1

   飞鸟以凶

   Launching too early, wings not yet set, this step exposes you to the wind.

   Marked in the textominous

2. 六二Line 2

   过其祖，遇其妣；不及其君，遇其臣；无咎

   Skipping the proper channel and going to a closer party gets it done, but leaves your standing unclear.

   Marked in the textno blame

3. 九三Line 3

   弗过防之，从或戕之，凶

   Already against the edge, pressing on leaves no room to turn back; to follow that momentum unchecked is to be cut down from outside, and neither advance nor retreat finds ground.

   Marked in the textominous

4. 九四Line 4

   无咎，弗过遇之。往厉必戒，勿用永贞

   Near the seat of power, not overstepping meets the opening, yet each step forward needs your own brake.

   Marked in the textno blamedanger

5. 六五Line 5

   密云不雨，自我西郊，公弋取彼在穴

   Thick cloud that will not rain out west of the city: the effort draws back to what is near and low. The lord bends his bow at the burrow and takes what crouches inside.

6. 上六Line 6

   弗遇过之，飞鸟离之，凶，是谓灾眚

   Fixed on overshooting, you strike what should not be touched, and at the end the trouble is self-invited.

   Marked in the textominous

Where each changing line leads

Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.

• 初六→AbundanceHexagram 55
• 六二→DurationHexagram 32
• 九三→EnthusiasmHexagram 16
• 九四→ModestyHexagram 15
• 六五→InfluenceHexagram 31
• 上六→The WandererHexagram 56