小畜

Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 41: Decrease

小畜
Small Taming
Wind / Heaven
Decrease
Mountain / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).

Line 3

九三 輿說輻。夫妻反目。

輿the carriage
shuōthrows off
its wheel's spokes
husband
and wife
fǎnare wild-
eyed

Nine in the third place means: The spokes burst out of the wagon wheels. Man and wife roll their eyes.

Line 5

九五 有孚攣如。富以其鄰。

yǒuhave
true
luánto confuse
like
enriched
by
one's
línneighbors

Nine in the fifth place means: If you are sincere and loyally attached, You are rich in your neighbor.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWind MountainThe Gentle → Keeping Still
Lower TrigramHeaven LakeThe Creative → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

身載百里,功加四海;為文開基,武立大柱。

Bearing a hundred li upon his shoulders, his merit extends to the four seas. Laying the foundation through civil virtue; through martial might he raises the great pillar.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Wind above heaven transforms into the mountain overlooking the lake — Decrease that serves a higher purpose. One shoulders the burden of a hundred leagues while achieving merit across the four seas. Civil virtue lays the foundation; martial power raises the great pillar. From Small Taming to Decrease, the verse embodies Sun's paradox: diminishing the lower to increase the upper. The one who carries a territory's weight and extends merit across all directions is the minister who sacrifices personal ease for public good. The pairing of 'wen' (civil) and 'wu' (martial) — foundation and pillar — echoes the Zhou ideal of King Wen and King Wu as complementary virtues. Decrease here is not loss but the discipline of channeling everything upward.

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