Small Exceeding
- In Chinese
- 小過 xiǎoguò
- Above
- The Arousing, thunder
- Below
- Keeping Still, mountain
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Mark my castWhat hexagram 62 means
Hexagram 62 is thunder over the mountain. Two whole lines sit in the middle and four broken lines surround them, two below and two above. Legge puts it in one sentence, “In Hsiâo Kwo the divided or small lines predominate”.
The judgment allows action, but only on a small scale. What the name denotes “may be done in small affairs, but not in great affairs”.
Its picture is a bird on the wing, for which “to descend is better than to ascend”. Taken that way, the judgment ends in “great good fortune”.
The lines are harder than the judgment. Three of the six end in evil, the first, the third and the top, and two of those three show a bird in flight.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
小過亨。利貞。可小事，不可大事。飛鳥遺之音，不宜上，宜下，大吉。
PREPONDERANCE OF THE SMALL. Success. Perseverance furthers. Small things may be done; great things should not be done. The flying bird brings the message: It is not well to strive upward, It is well to remain below. Great good fortune.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorablegreat good fortune it goes very well
The image
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: The image of PREPONDERANCE OF THE SMALL. Thus in his conduct the superior man gives preponderance to reverence. In bereavement he gives preponderance to grief. In his expenditures he gives preponderance to thrift.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment explains from the lines why small affairs succeed. It says “The weak (lines) are in the central places”. Of the two strong lines it says that one “is not in its proper place” and the other “is not central”, and so great affairs are ruled out.
The same commentary sets a limit on exceeding. To be of advantage “it must take place (only) according to (the requirements of) the time”.
The image is a hill with thunder above it. From it the commentary names three things in which a person may exceed. The superior man “in his conduct exceeds in humility, in mourning exceeds in sorrow, and in his expenditure exceeds in economy”. Wilhelm gives the same three with another word. In conduct the superior man “gives preponderance to reverence”, in bereavement to grief, in expenditures to thrift.
Legge explains the name by setting the figure beside hexagram 28. Of that one he writes “There the first and sixth lines are divided, and between are four undivided lines”. Here the two undivided lines are in the middle, and the small lines are the many. He gives the meaning of the name as “'small excesses' or 'exceeding in what is small.'”
He then asks whether it is ever good to leave the established course. His answer is “never in the matter of right”, but in what is conventional the deviation may be made. He sums it up as “The form may be given up, but not the substance”. Even then, he adds, it must be done “humbly and reverently, and in small matters”.
On the bird, the commentary on the judgment says “to ascend is contrary to what is reasonable in the case, while to descend is natural and right”. Legge admits that “The symbolism of the bird is rather obscure”, and then gives its point, “The whole of it is intended to teach humility”.
The six lines
First line
飛鳥以凶。
The bird meets with misfortune through flying.
misfortune it goes badly
The bird flies and keeps rising, and the end is evil. The commentary is blunt, “nothing can be done to avoid this issue”. Legge reads a weak line that nothing holds back. Its urge to exceed is not checked, “rather it is stimulated”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 55, Abundance
Second line
過其祖，遇其妣。不及其君，遇其臣。无咎。
She passes by her ancestor And meets her ancestress. He does not reach his prince And meets the official. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
This line passes the grandfather and meets the grandmother, and it attempts nothing against its ruler. The commentary gives the rule behind it, “a minister should not overpass the distance (between his ruler and himself)”. Legge reads an approach made “humbly and loyally, as his minister”, and he grants that the whole reading is “obscure and strained”. The text finds no error.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 32, Duration
Third line
弗過、防之，從或戕之，凶。
If one is not extremely careful, Somebody may come up from behind and strike him. Misfortune.
misfortune it goes badly
This is the lower of the two whole lines. Its subject is shown “taking no extraordinary precautions against danger”, and others find the chance to injure him. Legge names the fault. He is “too confident in his own strength”. The text ends in evil, and the commentary adds “how great will it be!”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 16, Enthusiasm
Fourth line
无咎。弗過、遇之，往厲必戒。勿用永貞。
No blame. He meets him without passing by. Going brings danger. One must be on guard. Do not act. Be constantly persevering.
no blame there is no mistake in itdanger there is danger
The second whole line falls into no error. It meets its situation without exceeding, and the commentary gives the ground, “the position being inappropriate (for a strong line)”. Legge explains that its strength is “tempered by the position in an even place”. The warning stays. The text says “If he go forward, there will be peril, and he must be cautious”, and Legge reads a call “to continue quiet and restrain himself”. The line closes with “There is no occasion to be using firmness perpetually”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 15, Modesty
Fifth line
密雲不雨，自我西郊。公弋取彼在穴。
Dense clouds, No rain from our western territory. The prince shoots and hits him who is in the cave.
no verdict
The picture is “dense clouds, but no rain”. The commentary gives the cause, “(the line) is in too high a place”. Legge reads a line in the ruler's seat that is “weak, and incapable of doing anything great”. The text names neither good fortune nor evil here. Legge adds that the one the prince captures “is supposed to be the subject of 2”. In the closing picture of the prince and the bird in the cave, the editors Legge cites find “an incentive to humility”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 31, Influence
Sixth line
弗遇、過之，飛鳥離之，凶，是謂災眚。
He passes him by, not meeting him. The flying bird leaves him. Misfortune. This means bad luck and injury.
misfortune it goes badly
The bird of the first line returns at the top, now “a bird flying far aloft”. The subject exceeds his proper course, and the text ends in evil, a case of “calamity and self-produced injury”. The commentary sees in the position “the habit of domineering”. Legge reads someone “incapable of keeping himself under restraint”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 56, The Wanderer
Hexagram 62 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 62 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, which allows small affairs and not great ones and prefers descending to ascending, and the image of a person who exceeds in humility, in sorrow and in economy.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 62 mean?
It is the hexagram in which the small lines predominate. What it stands for “may be done in small affairs, but not in great affairs”, and the judgment prefers coming down to going up.
What does hexagram 62 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 62 that is leave to act in small affairs and not in great ones, and the rule of exceeding in humility, in sorrow and in economy.
What does hexagram 62 changing to 56 mean?
It is hexagram 62 with its top line moving. That line shows “a bird flying far aloft” and ends in evil, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 56.
What does hexagram 62 changing to 55 mean?
It is hexagram 62 with its first line moving. That line shows a bird that flies and rises until the result is evil, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 55.
Why does hexagram 62 speak of a bird?
The judgment speaks of the notes that come down from a bird on the wing. Legge reads the picture as a lesson in humility. It is better for the bird to stay near where it can perch than to hold on into “the homeless regions of the air”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Hsiâo Kwo in James Legge. Preponderance of the Small in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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