損 → 蒙
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 4: Youthful Folly
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
四手共身，莫失所閑。更相放接，動失事便。
Four hands share one body; do not lose your proper bounds. Taking turns grasping and releasing; every movement misses its chance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake transforms into mountain above water — the confusion of Youthful Folly. Four hands share a single body, each struggling to maintain its station. When they jostle and grab at one another, every movement misses its proper moment. The image evokes a creature pulling itself in opposite directions, an organism at war with its own limbs. From Decrease to Youthful Folly, the mountain remains but the lake beneath becomes water flowing downhill with no direction. Decrease demands clarity about what to relinquish; Folly lacks precisely this discernment. The verse warns against undisciplined collaboration — when partners fail to coordinate their sacrifices, the shared enterprise collapses into mutual interference.
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