損 → 升
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 46: Pushing Upward
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 6).
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 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 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
秋隼冬翔，數被嚴霜。甲兵當庭，萬物不生。雄犬夜鳴，民擾以驚。
The autumn falcon soars in winter; repeatedly struck by bitter frost. Arms and armor fill the courtyard; the ten thousand things cannot grow. The male hound howls at night; the people are disturbed and alarmed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake yields to earth above wind — Pushing Upward, where growth proceeds steadily from below. Yet the verse paints not growth but devastation: an autumn hawk soars through winter skies, battered by frost. Weapons fill the courtyard, nothing grows. A war dog howls through the night; the people are terrified. Every image negates the promise of organic ascent. From Decrease to Pushing Upward, the mountain should give way to wood rising within earth — gradual, patient growth. Instead, the seasonal disruption freezes the process: frost in the wrong season, weapons where seedlings should be, nocturnal alarms instead of quiet germination. Decrease misapplied as military requisition strips the earth of its capacity to nurture upward growth.
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