損 → 否
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 12: Standstill
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
Line 1
初九 已事遄往。无咎。酌損之。
Nine at the beginning means: Going quickly when one's tasks are finished Is without blame. But one must reflect on how much one may decrease others.
Line 2
九二 利貞。征凶。弗損益之。
Nine in the second place means: Perseverance furthers. To undertake something brings misfortune. Without decreasing oneself, One is able to bring increase to others.
Line 4
六四 損其疾。使遄有喜。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: If a man deceases his faults, It makes the other hasten to come and rejoice. No blame.
Line 5
六五 或益之十朋之龜。弗克違。元吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Someone does indeed increase him. Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
秋隼冬翔，數被嚴霜。雄父夜鳴，家憂不寧。
The autumn falcon soars in winter; repeatedly struck by bitter frost. The cock crows in the night; the household worries, finding no peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake yields to heaven above earth — Standstill, where communication between above and below ceases entirely. An autumn hawk soars through winter skies, repeatedly struck by bitter frost. The male rooster crows in the night, and the household knows neither rest nor peace. Every image is out of season: hawks in winter, roosters at midnight, frost pounding relentlessly. From Decrease to Standstill, the lake's willing diminishment receives no reciprocal return; what flows downward never comes back up. The verse paints a world frozen in disconnection. When Decrease operates without response — when sacrifice meets only indifference from above — the result is Standstill: heaven and earth sealed off from each other, the household trembling under omens that no one heeds.
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