損 → 復
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 24: Return
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 6).
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 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
多載重負，損棄於野。予無稚子，但自勞苦。
Heavily loaded, overburdened; goods cast aside in the wild. I have no young child; only toiling bitterly by myself.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake yields to earth above thunder — Return, where the first yang re-enters at the bottom after total darkness. Heavily loaded and overburdened, goods are abandoned in the wild. Without a young child to help, one toils alone in futile labor. The verse captures exhaustion without relief: the load is too great, the support nonexistent, and what was carried must be cast aside. From Decrease to Return, the mountain collapses into earth while thunder stirs beneath. Return's promise is rebirth after hitting bottom — but the verse shows only the bottom, the moment of surrender before renewal begins. The discarded load in the wilderness is Decrease pushed past endurance, the point where one must let go of everything to begin again.
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