解 → 損
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 无咎。
Six at the beginning means: Without blame.
Line 4
九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。
Nine in the fourth place means: Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
Line 6
上六 公用射隼于高墉之上。獲之无不利。
Six at the top means: The prince shoots at a hawk on a high wall. He kills it. Everything serves to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
下擾上煩，蠹蠱為患，歲飢无年。
Below, turmoil; above, vexation. Borers and pests bring calamity; the year is starved, the harvest lost.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water diminishes into the mountain above the lake — the voluntary sacrifice of Decrease. Below is turmoil, above is vexation; parasites and rot infest as plagues, and the harvest fails, leaving a year without grain. The verse describes systemic decay from both ends: the common people suffer disruption while the leadership is harassed. Vermin compound the misery, and starvation follows. From Deliverance to Decrease, the release of one constraint reveals that resources have been depleted. The mountain draws from the lake below; sacrifice is required. When both high and low are exhausted and the granary is empty, decrease is not chosen but imposed by the logic of scarcity.
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