The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 62

What does I Ching hexagram 62, Small Excess, mean?

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。Small excess: success. It pays to hold firm. Small things can be done, great things can't. A flying bird leaves its song behind. It is not right to go up; it is right to go down. Great good fortune.Zhou Yi 周易, 小過, judgment. Source

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 a mountain. The noble person leans to excess in courtesy, in mourning and in thrift.Zhou Yi 周易, 小過, image. Source

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. In a cast, only the lines that move are read, and they turn the hexagram into another one. Here they are in the original; a reading translates the moving lines and reads them for the question asked.

1. First line初六：飛鳥以凶。
2. Second line六二：過其祖，遇其妣；不及其君，遇其臣；无咎。
3. Third line九三：弗過防之，從或戕之，凶。
4. Fourth line九四：无咎，弗過遇之。往厲必戒，勿用永貞。
5. Fifth line六五：密雲不雨，自我西郊，公弋取彼在穴。
6. Top line上六：弗遇過之，飛鳥離之，凶，是謂災眚。

The Chinese is the received text of the Zhou Yi; the English is ours. Lines and images that speak of punishments, prisons, illness or money are left out. For entertainment and self-reflection.

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