Upper trigram
☶
Mountain · Gen
Stillness and limit.
FamilyYoungest son
ElementEarth
Hexagram 41 of 64
☶☱ Decrease
Hexagram 41 of the 64, Decrease, is mountain above, lake below — read as giving something up for a larger gain. Its six lines are 011100, counted from the bottom up, where a broken line is yielding and a solid one firm.
Lower trigram
☱
Lake · Dui
Joy and openness.
FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal
From the Book of Changes itself
The Judgement and the Image
The Judgement
Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune without blame.
The Image
At the foot of the mountain, the lake. The superior person controls their anger and restrains their instincts.
These two texts are the hexagram. Everything else — the trigram analysis, the line positions, the modern keyword — is commentary built on top of them. The Judgement states the situation and its outlook; the Image draws the practical conclusion, and by convention begins with what the trigrams show in nature.
Rendered in plain English from the canonical text rather than copied from any one translation. If you want a specific scholarly version, Wilhelm-Baynes and Lynn are the two usually recommended.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yang yang yin yin — what each position means.
| Line | This hexagram | What the position means |
|---|---|---|
| 6 | ▬▬ ▬▬ yin | the situation past its peak — completion, or overreach |
| 5 | ▬▬ ▬▬ yin | the ruling position, usually the most favourable in the hexagram |
| 4 | ▬▬▬▬▬ yang | entering the outer sphere — proximity to authority, exposure |
| 3 | ▬▬▬▬▬ yang | the transition point, and the most dangerous position in the figure |
| 2 | ▬▬▬▬▬ yang | the inner sphere — home, private life, what you are among your own |
| 1 | ▬▬ ▬▬ yin | the beginning of the situation, still hidden and barely formed |
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
The lower trigram is the inner situation — Lake, joy and openness. This is what is happening in you, or in the private side of the matter.
The upper trigram is the outer situation — Mountain, stillness and limit. This is the world the inner position meets.
The five-element relation
Earth above generates Metal below, so the movement runs downward — the outer situation is feeding the inner one. Support arrives from outside rather than being generated within.
Read as a family
Read as family, this is Youngest son above and Youngest daughter below. Two siblings, which reads as relationship between equals rather than hierarchy.
The eight trigrams are traditionally assigned family roles — Heaven is the father, Earth the mother, and the remaining six are three sons and three daughters. Which one sits above which is part of how a hexagram is read.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to this one
Nuclear hexagram
9 · Small Taming
Built from lines 2-3-4 and 3-4-5 of this figure — the hexagram hidden inside it. Read as what is happening beneath the surface of the situation.
Opposite hexagram
31 · Influence
Every line flipped. The same situation turned inside out — useful for seeing what you are not currently considering.
Inverse hexagram
42 · Increase
The same figure turned upside down — traditionally read as the situation seen from the other party's side.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Mountain above, Lake below.
Mountain over Lake: stillness and limit meeting joy and openness.
That combination is the whole meaning of hexagram 41. Nothing about it is arbitrary — change either trigram and you get a different hexagram with a different reading, which is why the 64 form a system rather than a list.