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Hexagram 41: Sun (损) — Decrease
Hexagram 41, Sun (损) — Decrease, is the forty-first figure of the Book of Changes, composed of the Mountain trigram over the Lake trigram; the ancients read it as the lowering that feeds the height.
Meaning
Sun is the hexagram of lessening. The lake's waters are drawn up to moisten the mountain, and the old readers saw the lower giving to the upper — a picture of sacrifice, of the small diminished so that the great may stand. The judgment is exact: decrease combined with sincerity brings supreme good fortune. The figure is the book's teaching that loss, entered into honestly and for a worthy end, is not misfortune but a kind of strength. What is given away with a clear heart returns as something that cannot be spent.
Read against the working life, the figure is about restraint and the pruning that yields. The lines offer a full ethic of it — finish one's tasks and reflect how much one may decrease others; decrease one's own faults and the other hastens to share the joy. The commentators' point was that the most reliable form of decrease is the reduction of one's own excess. To spend less, to want less, to trim what is surplus — these are the savings that nothing can take away.
For the bonds between people, Sun was read as the giving that a close tie requires. The third line is the book's quiet arithmetic: three journey together and their number decreases by one; one travels alone and finds a companion. The ancients saw in it the truth that relationship demands the giving up of a little of one's solitude — and that what is lost to the bond comes back as companionship. The fifth line, ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it, is their image of a gift so freely given that nothing can stand against it.
Within a cycle, this figure marks a phase of contraction, a stretch when the wise course is to give, trim, and conserve rather than to add. The image of the lake beneath the mountain is the book's picture of the lower spending itself to uphold the higher. The counsel is to give where giving strengthens — to decrease what is excess, honestly and without resentment, and to trust that a loss borne with sincerity is the seed of a later gain.
The Judgment
“Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame.”
The Six Lines of Decrease
Line 1Going quickly when one's tasks are finished is without blame. But one must reflect on how much one may decrease others.
Line 2Perseverance furthers. To undertake something brings misfortune. Without decreasing oneself, one is able to bring increase to others.
Line 3When three people journey together, their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, he finds a companion.
Line 4If a man decreases his faults, it makes the other hasten to come and share his joy. No blame.
Line 5Someone does indeed increase him. Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Supreme good fortune.
Line 6If one is increased without depriving others, there is no blame. Perseverance brings good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is Hexagram 41 put together?
Sun (损) places the Mountain trigram (Gen, 艮) above the Lake trigram (Dui, 兑). The lake's waters drawn up to moisten the mountain were the ancients' image of the lower giving to the upper — the visual root of the meaning of decrease.
What does the judgment of Hexagram 41 say?
It reads: 'Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame.' The old commentaries explain that loss is fortunate only when it is entered into honestly and for a worthy end — what is given away with a clear heart returns as something that cannot be spent.
What is meant by three journeying and decreasing by one?
The third line, 'When three people journey together, their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, he finds a companion,' was read as the arithmetic of relationship. The commentators saw in it the teaching that close ties demand the giving up of a little solitude — and that what is surrendered to the bond returns as companionship.
Related
Source: Judgment and line texts follow the Wilhelm/Baynes rendering of the Yijing.
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