損 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
河伯娶婦，東山氏女。新婚三日，浮雲洒雨。露我菅茅，萬家之祐。
The River Lord takes a bride, a woman of the Eastern Mountain clan. Three days after the wedding; drifting clouds scatter rain. Wetting our rushes and thatch; a blessing for ten thousand homes.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake yields to fire above thunder — Biting Through, the hexagram of decisive legal action. The Earl of the River takes a bride from the Dongshan clan. Three days after the wedding, clouds gather and rain pours down, wetting the rushes and thatch, bringing blessings to ten thousand households. The 'River Earl's wedding' draws on the ancient cult of sacrificing brides to the Yellow River god, later debunked by the magistrate Ximen Bao at Ye. Yet here the sacrifice succeeds: the divine marriage produces rain for the people. From Decrease to Biting Through, the lake's offering to the mountain becomes the lightning flash that resolves obstruction. The bride is decreased — sacrificed — but through that sacrifice the entire community receives life-giving rain. Biting Through demands that something be broken to restore flow.
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