損 → 小過
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 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 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.
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 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
涸旱不雨，澤竭无流。魚鱉乾口，皇天不憂。
Parched drought without rain; the marshes dry, no water flows. Fish and turtles gasp with parched mouths; august Heaven shows no concern.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake transforms into thunder above mountain — Small Exceeding, where the small bird flies too high and loses its way. Drought grips the land without rain; the marsh dries up and streams cease to flow. Fish and turtles gasp with parched mouths, yet heaven shows no concern. The verse describes ecological catastrophe with theological silence: the creatures suffer, and the sky offers nothing. From Decrease to Small Exceeding, the lake evaporates into thunder that rumbles above the mountain without releasing rain — sound without substance, excess without effect. Small Exceeding warns against overreach in small matters; here even the small is denied. Decrease has emptied the reservoir, and the thunder's empty promise only mocks the drought below. Heaven's indifference is the final cruelty: the pattern decreases, and no one intervenes.
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