Decrease
- Upper Trigram
- Mountain
- Lower Trigram
- Lake
The Judgment
The lake water at the foot of the mountain rises little by little to moisten the heights — Decrease is about reduction and letting go, about the principle of losing first in order to gain. This hexagram seems to speak of loss, but really it speaks of choice: pare a little from what is excess below to serve what is more needed above; trim the elaborate and return to a plain, solid core. Decrease does not ask you to wrong yourself; it reminds you that real abundance often begins with knowing what to set down — surplus wanting, surplus display, surplus attachment. The tone here is sincerity and simplicity: as long as the heart is true, even two modest bowls of offering are enough. What in your life would grow lighter and clearer for being pared away? What should be let go may be no loss at all, but room made.
The Six Lines
First line
The moment your own task is finished, you hurry to help, and there is no blame; but do it with measure, and do not decrease others too far. This line is about keeping proportion even in helping: to lend a hand in time is good, yet you need not empty yourself out. When giving, weigh what each of you can spare; help judged just right lasts longer than sheer sacrifice.
Second line
Holding to what is right furthers you; rushing to strike out goes badly; without decreasing yourself, you can still benefit others. This line is about giving while keeping your ground: true support is not spending yourself away to please. Steadiness matters more than haste now; stand firm in your place first, and your very presence is already a gain to others.
Third line
When three journey together, one is often taken away; when one journeys alone, he finds a companion. This line is about the arithmetic of relationships: many together are not always of one heart, and few are not always lonely. Rather than gathering a crowd that only seems close, focus on the one that truly fits; sometimes to subtract is exactly how you come to meet.
Fourth line
Decrease your own faults, and the other hastens to draw near in gladness; there is no blame. This line is about mending yourself first, and the relationship eases. Many stuck exchanges are not the other's doing but some habit or fixation of your own; be willing to pare that flaw down, and the wall between loosens, and a good connection comes hurrying in.
Fifth line
Someone brings him a gift beyond price, a fortune that even divination cannot turn aside — supreme good fortune. This line is about the rich return that follows sincere decrease: when you give truly, without counting gain and loss, existence answers in kind. This luck is no windfall but your own earlier giving, asked for nothing, now flowing naturally back to you.
Top line
Increasing others without depriving anyone brings no blame; holding to what is right is fortunate, and it favors action; the following you gain here treats all under heaven as one home. This is the height of Decrease, about the reversal when giving grows so large it no longer counts yours and mine, and so achieves the widest gathering of all. Widen the frame, and gain and loss shrink.
Reading the Change
Decrease is about reduction, letting go, and gaining by losing first; from the first line to the top it runs from helping with measure and giving while keeping your ground, through the arithmetic of relationships and mending yourself first, to the return after sincere decrease and the reversal where loss turns to gain. When a line changes, the judgment — what to pare, and for whom — turns at one particular stage. A change low down usually asks you to give with something to spare and to decrease your own faults first; a change up top speaks to the rich return after true giving, and to widening the frame until yours and mine dissolve. Read where the changing line falls, then the resulting hexagram, and you know which way this trade-off is flowing. What should be pared may be no loss, but room made.