噬嗑 → 損
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
Line 2
六二 噬膚滅鼻。无咎。
Six in the second place means: Bites through tender meat, So that his nose disappears. No blame.
Line 4
九四 噬乾胏。得金矢。利艱貞。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: Bites on dried gristly meat. Receives metal arrows. It furthers one to be mindful of difficulties And to be persevering. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
遠望千里，不見黑子；離婁之明，無益於光。
Gazing a thousand miles into the distance, one cannot see a speck; even Li Lou's keen sight adds nothing to the light.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder deliver judgment, and here the verdict concerns the limits of even supreme perception. Gazing a thousand li into the distance, one cannot spot a single dark speck. Even the legendary keen-sighted Li Lou, whose eyes could see the tip of an autumn hair, gains nothing from such brilliance here. Li Lou, from Mencius, represents perfect visual acuity — yet the verse declares that even this transcendent vision is useless when the object simply is not there. From Biting Through to Decrease, the mountain rises above the lake, restraining desire below. The transformation teaches radical acceptance: sometimes reduction means acknowledging that no amount of effort or ability can find what does not exist. The loss must simply be absorbed.
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