頤 → 損
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).
Line 2
六二 顛頤。拂經于丘。頤征凶。
Six in the second place means: Turning to the summit for nourishment, Deviating from the path To seek nourishment from the hill. Continuing to do this brings misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
庭燎夜明,追古傷今。陽弱不制,陰雄坐戾。
The courtyard torch burns bright at night; pursuing the past, grieving for the present. The bright yang cannot restrain; the dark yin grows bold and sits in defiance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder gives way to mountain over lake — Decrease, where the lower is diminished to serve the upper. The court torches blaze through the night, illuminating a meditation on past and present. The Shijing's 'Ting Liao' ode depicts a diligent king holding audience before dawn by torchlight. Yet here the mood turns elegiac: yang grows weak and cannot govern; yin grows dominant and sits in rebellion. The ancient light reveals only how far the present has fallen. From Nourishment to Decrease, the transformation strips away: the lake beneath the mountain evaporates, diminishing what should be joyful. Nourishment's vitality is drained as yin overpowers yang, and the torch that once celebrated royal virtue now mourns its absence.
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