Hexagram 41 of 64
损 sǔn
Decrease
艮 (gèn, Mountain) above · 兑 (duì, Lake) below
The Judgment 卦辞
Deliberately decrease the lower to increase the higher — spend, simplify, sacrifice. Done sincerely and at the right time, even great decrease brings good fortune.
The Image 大象
The lake below the mountain: decrease. The wise person curbs anger and restrains desire.
The six lines 爻辞
Each line of 损 has its own classical text. If a line in your cast is changing, its text is the heart of your reading.
Line 1 · 初九
Drop your own task and go quickly — no blame. But measure what you give.
「已事遄往，无咎，酌损之」
Line 2 · 九二
Steady is good; pressing on is not. Sometimes not sacrificing — and not gaining — is the way.
「利贞，征凶，弗损益之」
Line 3 · 六三
Three traveling lose one; one traveling finds a companion. Less is the door to more.
「三人行，则损一人；一人行，则得其友」
Line 4 · 六四
Decrease the sickness — act swiftly and joy comes. No blame in cutting what harms.
「损其疾，使遄有喜，无咎」
Line 5 · 六五
A gift of ten strings of turtle shells — too great to refuse. Supreme good fortune.
「或益之十朋之龟，弗克违，元吉」
Line 6 · 上九
Not decreasing but increasing — no blame, steady good fortune, and the road opens.
「弗损益之，无咎，贞吉，利有攸往」
If you drew this in a reading
A pattern of tension and craft. This hexagram belongs to the large middle family of mixed patterns: it works, but only along its own grain. Read the Judgment closely — mixed hexagrams usually name the exact condition on which their promise depends.
In yes/no questions this hexagram reads as “not yet clear” — the answer hinges on timing and execution.
The trigrams give the flavor: 艮 (Mountain) above — keeping still — restraint, meditation, knowing when to stop — over 兑 (Lake) below — joyous openness — exchange, persuasion, pleasure shared. Where those two energies meet, 损 is born.
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