損 → 泰
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 11: Peace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
Line 3
六三 三人行。則損一人。一人行。則得其友。
Six in the third place means: When three people journey together, Their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, He finds a companion.
Line 6
上九 弗損益之。无咎。貞吉。利有攸往。得臣无家。
Nine at the top means: If one is increased without depriving others, There is no blame. Perseverance brings good fortune. It furthers one to undertake something. One obtains servants But no longer has a separate home.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
夏麥麩䵃，霜擊其芒。病君敗國，使年大傷。
Summer wheat turns to bran and chaff; frost strikes its awns. A sick lord ruins the state; causing the harvest year great harm.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake gives way to earth above heaven — Peace, where high and low exchange places freely. Yet the verse inverts the promise: summer wheat produces only bran, and frost strikes the grain's awning. A sick ruler ruins the state, bringing a year of great injury. The imagery is agricultural catastrophe compounded by political failure. Wheat that should nourish yields only chaff; frost in the wrong season destroys what remains. From Decrease to Peace, the exchange between above and below should bring harmony, but here the exchange is poisoned: the ruler's illness infects the harvest. Decrease without wisdom becomes mere waste, and Peace's open channels transmit corruption as readily as virtue.
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