損 → 艮
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
豺狼所言，語无成全。誤我白馬，使乾口來。
What the wolf and jackal speak; their words hold nothing true. They deceive my white horse; making it come with a parched mouth.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake becomes doubled mountain — Keeping Still, absolute cessation. The jackal and wolf speak, but their words accomplish nothing. Their counsel leads the white horse astray, leaving it to arrive parched and dry-mouthed. Predatory advisors offer promises that disintegrate upon contact with reality. The white horse — a symbol of noble purpose — is deceived and arrives exhausted, having followed a false path. From Decrease to Keeping Still, the lake evaporates entirely and only twin mountains remain: immovable, silent, refusing to engage. Decrease here has removed all fluidity, all adaptability. The wolves' empty words are the last motion in a world freezing into paralysis. Stillness becomes not meditation but the rigid aftermath of betrayal — everything stopped, nothing nourished.
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