明夷 → 損
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
Line 2
六二 明夷。夷于左股。用拯馬壯吉。
Six in the second place means: Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh. He gives aid with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 3
九三 明夷于南狩。得其大首。不可疾貞。
Nine in the third place means: Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south. Their great leader is captured. One must not expect perseverance too soon.
Line 6
上六 不明晦。初登于天。後入于地。
Six at the top means: Not light but darkness. First he climbed up to heaven, Then plunged into the depths of the earth.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
逢時得當，身受福慶。
Meeting the time and finding the moment; one receives blessings and joy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth becomes the mountain above the lake — Decrease, where the lower is diminished to nourish the upper. The verse is the shortest in this batch, a mere eight characters: 'Meeting the moment at the right time, the body receives blessings and joy.' Its brevity is itself the message — Decrease strips away excess until only the essential remains. When one's timing aligns with circumstance, no elaboration is needed; fortune arrives without fanfare. From Darkening of the Light to Decrease, the transformation suggests that what was hidden in darkness emerges not through dramatic revelation but through the quiet shedding of everything unnecessary. The mountain's stillness above the lake's yielding mirrors the economy of the verse itself.
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