損 → 困
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 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 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 5
六五 或益之十朋之龜。弗克違。元吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Someone does indeed increase him. Ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Supreme good fortune.
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
招禍致凶，來螫我邦。痛在手足，不得安息。
Inviting disaster, bringing calamity; stinging insects plague our land. Pain in hands and feet; unable to find rest.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake transforms into lake above water — Oppression, where the lake has leaked dry and water sinks below. Calamity is invited and misfortune drawn in: stinging venom strikes the realm. Pain seizes the hands and feet; there is no rest. The verse describes affliction that is both invited and inescapable — the language of 'inviting disaster' implies agency, a calamity brought upon oneself. From Decrease to Oppression, the mountain vanishes while the lake empties above water that has drained away. Oppression is the hexagram of exhausted resources: the lake without water, the well without sustenance. Decrease here has been carried past all useful limit, depleting the very reserves that might have provided relief. The venom in the limbs is the body politic consuming itself.
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