損 → 晉
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鉛刀攻玉，堅不可得。盡我筋力，胝蠒為疾。
Attacking jade with a lead knife; the hardness cannot be overcome. Exhausting all my sinew and strength; calluses and blisters become my affliction.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake yields to fire above earth — Progress, where light rises above the horizon. A lead knife attempts to carve jade: the stone is too hard, the blade too soft. One exhausts every sinew, raising blisters thick as cocoons, yet the jade remains unmarked. The 'lead knife' is a classical metaphor for inadequate tools applied to noble material — a self-deprecating trope found in writers like Ban Gu. From Decrease to Progress, the mountain gives way to fire emerging from the earth, light advancing into the world. But the verse reveals Progress's shadow: advancement requires the right instrument. Decrease alone — simply trying harder, grinding away more effort — cannot compensate for a fundamental mismatch between tool and task.
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