Upper trigram
☳
Thunder (Zhen) above
Arousal and shock.
FamilyEldest son
ElementWood
Hexagram 62 of 64
I Ching hexagram 62 ☳☶ Small Exceeding
I Ching hexagram 62, Small Exceeding, is thunder above, mountain below. In brief: attend to small things, not large ones. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 3 and 4 and its broken lines in 1, 2, 5 and 6.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚋⚊⚊⚋⚋ 001100 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Thunder over Mountain Zhen ☳ / Gen ☶
- Every line changed
- № 61 Inner Truth
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 201 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☶
Mountain (Gen) below
Stillness and limit.
FamilyYoungest son
ElementEarth
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 62
The Judgement
Small exceeding: a time for small things, not great ones. Like a bird that should stay low rather than fly high, modest actions succeed and ambitious ones do not.
The Image
Thunder on a mountain, heard only nearby. The lesson is to be a little more careful, humble and thrifty than usual.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 62 in James Legge’s translation
“Hsiâo Kwo indicates that (in the circumstances which it implies) there will be progress and attainment. But it will be advantageous to be firm and correct. (What the name denotes) may be done in small affairs, but not in great affairs. (It is like) the notes that come down from a bird on the wing;—to descend is better than to ascend. There will (in this way) be great good fortune.”
“(The trigram representing) a hill and that for thunder above it form Hsiâo Kwo. The superior man, in accordance with this, in his conduct exceeds in humility, in mourning exceeds in sorrow, and in his expenditure exceeds in economy.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, suggests (the idea of) a bird flying, (and ascending) till the issue is evil.
- Line 2 The second line, divided, shows its subject passing by his grandfather, and meeting with his grandmother; not attempting anything against his ruler, but meeting him as his minister. There will be no error.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows its subject taking no extraordinary precautions against danger; and some in consequence finding opportunity to assail and injure him. There will be evil.
- Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows its subject falling into no error, but meeting (the exigency of his situation), without exceeding (in his natural course). If he go forward, there will be peril, and he must be cautious. There is no occasion to be using firmness perpetually.
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, (suggests the idea) of dense clouds, but no rain, coming from our borders in the west. It also (shows) the prince shooting his arrow, and taking the bird in a cave.
- Line 6 · top The sixth line, divided, shows its subject not meeting (the exigency of his situation), and exceeding (his proper course). (It suggests the idea of) a bird flying far aloft. There will be evil. The case is what is called one of calamity and self-produced injury.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 201 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
Small Exceeding for a decision
Keep it small. Attend to details, be conscientious and postpone the big leap.
I Ching 62 in love and relationships
Small courtesies and attentiveness carry the relationship now. Grand plans can wait.
Hexagram 62 at work
Detail work, minor improvements and careful housekeeping. Avoid overreaching.
The six lines of hexagram 62
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yin yang yang yin yin — what each position means.
2 yang and 4 yin lines. Three of the six stand in their proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 3–6 answer.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Mountain below — stillness and limit — is the private, inner side of hexagram 62.
Thunder above — arousal and shock — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Wood above controls Earth below. Circumstance restrains the inner position — pressure comes from the situation, not from within.
Read as a family
The eldest son sits above and the youngest son below. Two brothers, the older one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, so the order is one of seniority, not authority.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 62
Nuclear hexagram
28 · Great Exceeding
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Xun (Wind) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Dui (Lake) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
61 · Inner Truth
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Thunder over Mountain becomes Wind over Lake.
Inverse hexagram
Symmetrical
Hexagram 62 reads the same upside down: Thunder over Mountain, turned over, is still Thunder over Mountain. Only eight of the sixty-four do.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Thunder above, Mountain below.
Thunder over Mountain: arousal and shock meeting stillness and limit.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/62/
For Wikipedia
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