損 → 大壯
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 34: Great Power
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 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 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 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
行觸天綱，馬死車傷。身无憀賴，困窮乏糧。
Traveling, he strikes heaven's net; the horse dies, the carriage wrecked. His person left without recourse; destitute and lacking provisions.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake transforms into thunder above heaven — Great Power, yang energy at its most aggressive. Yet the verse depicts power catastrophically misapplied: one collides with heaven's net, the horse dies, the chariot is wrecked. Left without support or recourse, one is stranded in poverty and want. The 'heavenly net' is cosmic law that cannot be evaded — those who crash against it are destroyed by their own momentum. From Decrease to Great Power, the mountain's restraint gives way to thunder roaring above heaven, raw force with no container. Great Power's hexagram warns: 'The gentleman does not tread where propriety forbids.' The verse shows what happens when Decrease's discipline is abandoned for reckless advance — the very strength that should empower becomes the instrument of self-destruction.
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