Hexagram 41 · Decrease
损 · Sǔn
The Judgment
Decrease combined with sincerity brings supreme good fortune without blame. One may persevere in this, and it furthers one to undertake something. How is this to be carried out? Two small bowls may be used for the offering. In lean times, sincerity matters more than abundance. Give what you truly have, simply, and it will be accepted.
The Image
At the foot of the mountain, the lake: the image of Decrease. Thus the superior man controls his anger and restrains his instincts. He reduces in himself what is excessive, and by that reduction he grows.
Interpretation
Something is being taken away, or must be given up, and the question is how you meet the loss. This hexagram insists that decrease honestly accepted is not impoverishment. Cutting back on spending, on commitments, on the noise in your schedule, clears the ground for what actually matters. There is also a strong ethical note: reduce yourself before you reduce others, and if you must ask for less from people, ask openly rather than quietly shifting the cost. The two small sacrificial bowls are the heart of it, a modest offering made with real sincerity outranks a lavish one made for show. Look particularly at your temper and your appetites, which the Image names directly; these are the excesses that most reliably cost you. Accept the leaner season with good grace, spend your reduced resources on things of genuine value, and you will end this period lighter, clearer and stronger than you began it.
Love
Simplify. Let go of demands, comparisons, and the wish for grand gestures, and give attention instead. Restrain irritation before it speaks. A relationship that survives on modest, sincere care during a thin season is proving something no expensive gesture ever could.
Career
Budgets, time and support are tighter than you would like. Cut your own costs first, drop low-value work without complaint, and do the essential things well. Modest, honest results delivered now build more credibility than ambitious promises you cannot presently fund.
Advice
Give up what is excessive in yourself first, and offer what remains with complete sincerity.
Line by line
Going quickly when your own task is finished is without blame, but consider carefully how much you may decrease others. Help freely once your own work is done, yet weigh what your help costs the other person's independence and dignity.
Perseverance furthers; to undertake something brings misfortune. You can increase others without diminishing yourself. Hold your ground and keep your integrity rather than rushing to serve; self-respect is not selfishness, and depleting yourself helps no one.
When three people travel together, one is diminished; when one travels alone, he finds a companion. Crowds create friction and factions. Real partnership requires reducing to two, so make your pairings deliberate rather than gathering everyone in.
If a man decreases his faults, the other hastens to come and rejoice. No blame. Work on your own worst habit and the person who has been distant will draw close again. Change in you removes the barrier between you.
Someone increases him; ten pairs of tortoises cannot oppose it. Supreme good fortune. When you have reduced yourself sincerely, unexpected help arrives that no reckoning could have predicted or prevented. Accept it simply, without protest.
He increases others without diminishing himself. No blame; perseverance brings good fortune. He gains servants but no longer has a separate house. Having given fully, he serves something larger than his private interests and gains far more.