Hexagram 62 · Xiǎo guò 小過 Small Excess

小過，亨，利貞。可小事，不可大事。飛鳥遺之音，不宜上，宜下，大吉。

Xiao Guo: success. It is fitting to be correct and firm. Small matters can be done; great matters cannot. A flying bird leaves its call behind: going up is not fitting, going down is fitting. Great good fortune.

With four yin lines outside two yang, yin outnumbers yang: the small goes beyond. That can go through, but correctness must be kept. The second and fifth lines are soft and central, so small matters can be done; the firm third and fourth have lost their place and lack the center, so great matters cannot. Solid inside and empty outside, the hexagram is shaped like a bird in flight, whose call carries down rather than up. To go down, Zhu Xi says, is fitting and greatly favorable, another way of not taking on great matters.

山上有雷，小過。君子以行過乎恭，喪過乎哀，用過乎儉。

Thunder on the mountain: Xiao Guo. The noble person, accordingly, goes a little too far in respect when acting, in grief when mourning, and in thrift when spending.

Thunder on a mountaintop sounds a little beyond the usual. The three excesses, Zhu Xi says, are all excesses in small things: one may go too far in the small but not in the great, a little too far but not very far. This matches the judgment's “small matters” and “going down.”

Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading

飛鳥以凶。

A flying bird: by this, misfortune.

Weak, answering the fourth line above, and in a time of excess, the first line goes up rather than down. Since the judgment says a flying bird should not go up but down, the image and verdict follow. Zhu Xi adds that in Guo Pu's record of divinations, the Dongling (洞林), this line was sometimes linked to trouble from birds.

Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading

過其祖，遇其妣，不及其君，遇其臣，无咎。

Passing the grandfather, one meets the grandmother. Falling short of the ruler, one meets the minister. No blame.

Soft, compliant, central and correct, the second line moving up would pass the two yang lines and meet the yin fifth: passing yang and meeting yin, like going past the grandfather to meet the grandmother. It does not reach the fifth as ruler but keeps to its own share, like falling short of the lord and meeting his minister. It passes without overstepping, Zhu Xi says, keeping correct and central.

Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading

弗過防之，從或戕之，凶。

Unless one goes beyond the usual to guard against it, someone may follow and do harm. Misfortune.

Zhu Xi observes that in a time of small excess, matters often have to go a little past the mark to reach the mean. Firm in a correct position, the third line is the target of the many yin lines, yet, trusting its own strength, it will not take extra precautions; hence the warning. If one can guard beyond the usual, he says, the harm can be avoided.

Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading

无咎，弗過遇之。往厲必戒，勿用永貞。

No blame. Without going too far, it meets what fits. Going on is dangerous; one must take care. Do not hold to firmness for good.

A firm line in a soft place errs toward deference, which in a time of excess is the way to no blame. Not overdoing its firmness, it meets what fits; to go on would be excess, hence the danger. Hard by nature, it is warned not to cling to firmness but to follow the time. Zhu Xi notes the phrase could be read on the third line's pattern too, and leaves it open for those who know.

Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading

密雲不雨，自我西郊。公弋取彼在穴。

Thick clouds, but no rain, from our western outskirts. The duke shoots with a corded arrow and takes the one in the hole.

A yin line in the seat of honor at a time when yin is in excess cannot accomplish anything alone, so it shoots and takes the second line to help it; the thing in the hole is a yin creature. Two yin lines finding each other, Zhu Xi concludes, plainly cannot carry through great matters: the clouds gather, and no rain falls.

Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading

弗遇過之，飛鳥離之，凶，是謂災眚。

Not meeting it, it goes past it. The flying bird goes far away. Misfortune. This is called calamity and affliction.

Yin at the top of the moving trigram and at the height of yin's excess, this line has gone too high and too far, hence the image and the verdict. Zhu Xi records a suggestion that the words “not meeting, passing” should be reversed, as in the fourth line, with a sense like the third line's, but says he does not know whether it is right.