損
sǔn

41. Decrease

䷨
Above
艮 gèn
Keeping Still, Mountain
Below
兌 duì
The Joyous, Lake

This hexa­gram rep­re­sents a de­crease of the lower tri­gram in favor of the upper, be­cause the third line, orig­i­nal­ly strong, has moved up to the top, and the top line, orig­i­nal­ly weak, has re­placed it. What is below is de­creased to the ben­e­fit of what is above. This is out-and-out de­crease. If the foun­da­tions of a build­ing are de­creased in strength and the upper walls are strength­ened, the whole struc­ture loses its sta­bil­i­ty. Like­wise, a de­crease in the pros­per­i­ty of the peo­ple in favor of the gov­ern­ment is out-and-out de­crease. And the en­tire theme of the hexa­gram is di­rect­ed to show­ing how this shift of wealth can take place with­out caus­ing the sources of wealth in the na­tion and its lower class­es to fail.

The Judgement

Decrease combined with sincerity
Brings about supreme good fortune
Without blame.
One may be persevering in this.
It furthers one to undertake something.
How is this to be carried out?
One may use two small bowls for the sacrifice.

De­crease does not under all cir­cum­stances mean some­thing bad. In­crease and de­crease come in their own time. What mat­ters here is to un­der­stand the time and not to try to cover up pover­ty with empty pre­tense. If a time of scanty re­sources brings out an inner truth, one must not feel ashamed of sim­plic­i­ty. For sim­plic­i­ty is then the very thing need­ed to pro­vide inner strength for fur­ther un­der­tak­ings. In­deed, there need be no con­cern if the out­ward beau­ty of the civ­i­liza­tion, even the elab­o­ra­tion of re­li­gious forms, should have to suf­fer be­cause of sim­plic­i­ty. One must draw on the strength of the inner at­ti­tude to com­pen­sate for what is lack­ing in ex­ter­nals; then the power of the con­tent makes up for the sim­plic­i­ty of form. There is no need of pre­sent­ing false ap­pear­ances to God. Even with slen­der means, the sen­ti­ment of the heart can be ex­pressed.

The Image

At the foot of the mountain, the lake:
The image of decrease.
Thus the superior man controls his anger
And restrains his instincts.

The lake at the foot of the moun­tain evap­o­rates. In this way it de­creas­es to the ben­e­fit of the moun­tain, which is en­riched by its mois­ture. The moun­tain stands as the sym­bol of a stub­born strength that can hard­en into anger. The lake is the sym­bol of unchecked gai­ety that can de­vel­op into pas­sion­ate dri­ves at the ex­pense of the life forces. There­fore de­crease is nec­es­sary; anger must be de­creased by keep­ing still, the in­stincts must be curbed by re­stric­tion. By this de­crease of the lower pow­ers of the psy­che, the high­er as­pects of the soul are en­riched.

The Lines

Nine at the beginning means:
Going quickly when one’s tasks are finished
Is without blame.
But one must reflect on how much one may decrease
others.

It is un­selfish and good when a man, after com­plet­ing his own ur­gent tasks, uses his strength in the ser­vice of oth­ers, and with­out brag­ging or mak­ing much of it, Helps quick­ly where help is need­ed. But the man in a su­pe­ri­or po­si­tion who is thus aided must weigh care­ful­ly how much he can ac­cept with­out doing the help­ful ser­vant or friend real harm. Only where such del­i­ca­cy of feel­ing ex­ists can one give one­self un­con­di­tion­al­ly and with­out hes­i­ta­tion.

Nine in the second place means:
Perseverance furthers.
To undertake something brings misfortune.
Without decreasing oneself.
One is able to bring increase to others.

A high-mind­ed self-aware­ness and a con­sis­tent se­ri­ous­ness with no for­feit of dig­ni­ty are nec­es­sary if a man wants to be of ser­vice to oth­ers. He who throws him­self away in order to do the bid­ding of a su­pe­ri­or di­min­ish­es his own po­si­tion with­out there­by giv­ing last­ing ben­e­fit to the other. This is wrong. To ren­der true ser­vice of last­ing value to an­oth­er, one must serve him with­out re­lin­quish­ing one­self.

Six in the third place means:
When three people journey together,
Their number decreases by one.
When one man journeys alone,
He finds a companion.

When there are three peo­ple to­geth­er, jeal­ousy aris­es. One of them will have to go. A very close bond is pos­si­ble only be­tween two peo­ple. But when one man is lone­ly, he is cer­tain to find a com­pan­ion who com­ple­ments him.

Six in the fourth place means:
If a man decreases his faults,
It makes the other hasten to come and rejoice.
No blame.

A man’s faults often pre­vent even well-dis­posed peo­ple from com­ing clos­er to him. His faults are some­times re­in­forced by the en­vi­ron­ment in which he lives. But if in hu­mil­i­ty he can bring him­self to the point of giv­ing them up, he frees his well- dis­posed friends from an inner pres­sure and caus­es them to ap­proach the more quick­ly, and there is mu­tu­al joy.

Six in the fifth place means:
Someone does indeed increase him.
Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it.
Supreme good fortune.

If some­one is marked out by fate for good for­tune, it comes with­out fail. All or­a­cles—as for in­stance those that are read from the shells of tor­tois­es—are bound to con­cur in giv­ing him fa­vor­able signs. He need fear noth­ing, be­cause his luck is or­dained from on high.

Nine at the top means:
If one is increased without depriving others,
There is no blame.
Perseverance brings good fortune.
It furthers one to undertake something.
One obtains servants
But no longer has a separate home.

There are peo­ple who dis­pense bless­ings to the whole world. Every in­crease in power that comes to them ben­e­fits the whole of mankind and there­fore does not bring de­crease to oth­ers. Through per­se­ver­ance and zeal­ous work a man wins suc­cess and finds helpers as they are need­ed. But what he ac­com­plish­es is not a lim­it­ed pri­vate ad­van­tage; it is a pub­lic good and avail­able to every­one.