渙 → 損
Hexagram 59: Dispersion → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 5).
Line 1
初六 用拯馬壯吉。
Six at the beginning means: He brings help with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 5
九五 渙汗其大號。渙。王居无咎。
Nine in the fifth place means: His loud cries are as dissolving as sweat. Dissolution! A king abides without blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
有莘外野，不逢堯主。復居窮處，心勞志苦。
In the outer wilds of You Xin, he meets no enlightened lord like Yao. Returning to dwell in poverty, his heart toils and his spirit suffers.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind over water scatters a great talent into obscurity. The fields of Youshen stretch empty — this is where Yi Yin, the future sage-minister of the Shang dynasty, once labored as a cook before King Tang discovered him. But here no Yao-like sovereign appears to recognize the hidden worthy. The man returns to poverty, his heart laboring and his ambitions withering. Mountain above the lake creates the image of Decrease — the mountain's base eroded to enrich what lies below. From Dispersion to Decrease, the verse captures the agony of talent diminished by circumstance. Yi Yin found his Tang; this anonymous worthy finds no one. Decrease without purpose is mere erosion, and the dispersed sage-in-waiting may never be gathered.
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