EN (English)
䷽
Hexagram 62 of 64
Preponderance of the Small
小過 · Xiǎo Guò
A bird in flight, wings spread, body small: two strong lines in the centre and four weak ones around them. The hexagram is about a period when only small things succeed.
small things
modesty
exceeding downward
attention to detail
- King Wen number
- 62 of 64
- Above
- ☳ Zhèn · Thunder
- Below
- ☶ Gèn · Mountain
- Composition
- Thunder over Mountain
- Lines, bottom to top
- Broken · broken · solid · solid · broken · broken
- Chinese
- 小過 · Xiǎo Guò
The Judgment
Success. It rewards holding to the course. Small things may be done; great things may not. The flying bird leaves its call: it is not well to go up, it is well to stay down. Great good fortune.
Unusually explicit instructions. The bird's cry comes down rather than up, and so should you.
The Image
Thunder on the mountain: Small Exceeding. So in conduct the noble person goes further in respect, in mourning goes further in grief, and in spending goes further in thrift.
Three permitted excesses, all of them downward and inward. The classic says exactly where going too far is allowed.
What it means
Xiao Guo is the counterpart of hexagram 28, and the difference is where the weight sits. There, four strong lines were crowded into the middle and the structure sagged. Here the middle is strong and the outside is weak, which the classic draws as a bird: a small body and a large wingspan.
The Judgment is one of the most directive in the book. Small things may be done, great things may not, and the flying bird's call comes downward rather than up. Whatever you are considering, the hexagram wants it smaller and lower.
The Image is the memorable part, because it names three excesses and permits all of them. Go too far in respect. Go too far in grief. Go too far in thrift. All three exceed downward, toward humility, feeling and restraint, and the classic is explicit that this is the only direction in which excess is safe here.
The line texts hold the same line without variation. A bird that flies meets misfortune at the bottom and is gone at the top. In between, aiming for the prince and meeting the official is fine, and the fourth line stacks four separate instructions not to move.
In a reading
Small Exceeding as an answer says keep it small. This is not a period for ambitious moves, and the hexagram is unusually blunt about it.
Its counsel is to attend to detail, be more careful than usual, and put your extra effort into courtesy, feeling and thrift rather than into scale. Aiming high and landing somewhere modest is explicitly fine here.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Six at the top
He passes by without meeting. The flying bird leaves him. Misfortune, and this is called calamity.
Overshooting entirely. The bird that should have stayed low is gone.
-
Six in the fifth place
Dense clouds and no rain, from our own western fields. The prince shoots and takes the one in the cave.
Hexagram 9's image returning, with a precise small action succeeding where the large release does not come.
-
Nine in the fourth place
No blame. He meets him without going past. Going brings danger; be on guard. Do not act. Be constantly steadfast.
The most restraining line in the book: four separate instructions not to move.
-
Nine in the third place
If one is not extremely careful, someone may strike from behind. Misfortune.
Ordinary vigilance is not enough in this period. The line asks for more than usual.
-
Six in the second place
She passes her ancestor and meets her ancestress. He does not reach the prince and meets the official. No blame.
Aiming high and arriving somewhere lower, twice. The classic marks both as fine.
-
Six at the beginning
The bird meets misfortune through flying.
Six characters. Rising when the whole hexagram says stay low.
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