Hexagram 41
Decrease
損 · 손
Mountain over Lake
The Judgment
Decrease asks that something be surrendered so that what is essential may endure. When the offering is sincere, simplicity is not a defect, and a modest gift may carry the weight of an abundant sacrifice. Steadfastness brings benefit, and there may still be work worth undertaking. Yet reduction must answer the time: neither lavish display nor relentless austerity is right in itself. Measure what is removed by the life and truth it preserves.
The Image
At the mountain's foot lies the lake, its depth answering the height above it. The noble one takes this as an instruction in inward economy: anger is checked before it hardens into action, and appetite is restrained before it consumes the heart. Self-reduction makes room for steadiness.
In the light of the Dao
The way of decrease returns the carved thing toward its original simplicity. What falls away need not be mourned if it was only an accumulation of craving. Yield the excess without attacking yourself; an emptied vessel serves because its openness has been preserved.
The two trigrams
Upper · outer
☶Mountain
Keeping still · Youngest son
Lower · inner
☱Lake
Joyous, open · Youngest daughter
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line speaks only when it moves — when the cast gives it as 6 or 9.
First line · the beginning · yang, nine
When your own immediate business is finished, go promptly to assist another. Such readiness carries no fault, but generosity still requires discernment. Consider how much should be surrendered, so that help is timely and sufficient without becoming a careless exhaustion of your resources.
Second line · the inner centre · yang, nine
Remain faithful to your proper ground. An eager advance would spend what ought to be preserved and would turn service into error. Here another is best helped not by diminishing yourself, but by maintaining the strength and integrity on which useful assistance depends.
Third line · the threshold · yin, six
When three press forward together, the bond may divide and one be left apart. When one travels alone, a fitting companion can appear. The change concerns the clearing of confused attachments: a true pairing requires room that a crowded alliance cannot provide.
Fourth line · the minister · yin, six
Reduce the habit or affliction that keeps wholesome help at a distance. Once the obstruction is lessened, another can approach readily, and relief brings gladness. There is no fault in accepting assistance; the necessary work is to stop nourishing what makes you difficult to reach.
Fifth line · the ruler · yin, six
An increase comes that you did not contrive, confirmed as though by many costly instruments of divination. Do not dispute good fortune merely because it exceeds your calculations. Receptiveness, humility, and an unselfish purpose have made you a place where support can safely gather.
Top line · the end · yang, nine
The highest decrease no longer requires impoverishing one side to enrich another. Benefit circulates without injury, and steadfast action may proceed. Helpers gather around a purpose larger than a private household; responsibility is fulfilled by serving the whole rather than enclosing advantage within a favored circle.