Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Small Excess
Hexagram 62 of the Yi Jing · 小过 Xiǎo Guò
The figure
Thunder above the Mountain: movement held back by the immovable, the bird that must not fly too high. The image of the small's excess, of measure in the details.
What this figure illuminates
Preponderance of the Small lights up times that call for attention to the minute rather than to grand gestures. The moment is not for high ambitions but for the scrupulous care of small things.
For a decision, the figure invites you to aim right and low: “is this the time for great scope, or rather for doing the small things well, without overestimating my strength?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
The small in excess: there is success in small things, held firm and correct. Do the little tasks, not the great. The flying bird leaves its cry: better to come down than to climb — and great good fortune.
The Image
Thunder over the mountain, sound rising higher than it should. Seeing this, the noble person leans, in small things, toward too much humility, too much grief in mourning, too much thrift in spending.
The Six Lines
- First line
A small bird that flies too high, past where it should have stayed. Overreaching from the start: misfortune.
- Second line
You pass by the high one and meet the humbler, keeping to your proper, modest place rather than reaching above it. No error.
- Third line
Taking no special care in a small-favouring time, you leave yourself open, and some strike at you. Misfortune from carelessness.
- Fourth line
No error: you meet the moment without overstepping. Do not press on now — go forward, and it turns dangerous; hold firm.
- Fifth line
Dense clouds gather but the rain will not fall — what you await hangs unfulfilled. Reach instead for what is near and within grasp, as the prince takes the bird in the hollow.
- Sixth line
Going too far, missing the moment entirely — the bird flying off beyond all reach. Excess at the end: misfortune.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Is this the time for grand gestures, or scrupulous care of the details?
Draw this figure for your question
Ask your question and do a free I Ching reading online, then receive a reading tied to your situation.
To go further, Daoa is also an iPhone, iPad & Android app.
Download on the App StoreDownload on Google PlayOr do a free Chinese tarot reading online →