Upper trigram
☶
Mountain (Gen) above
Stillness and limit.
FamilyYoungest son
ElementEarth
Hexagram 41 of 64
I Ching hexagram 41 ☶☱ Decrease
I Ching hexagram 41, Decrease, is mountain above, lake below. In brief: giving something up for a larger gain. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 2 and 6 and its broken lines in 3, 4 and 5.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚊⚊⚋⚋⚋⚊ 110001 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Mountain over Lake Gen ☶ / Dui ☱
- Every line changed
- № 31 Influence
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 146 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☱
Lake (Dui) below
Joy and openness.
FamilyYoungest daughter
ElementMetal
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 41
The Judgement
Decrease: cutting back, when done sincerely, is not a loss. Simplicity is enough — even a small, heartfelt offering is acceptable.
The Image
A lake at the foot of a mountain, giving its moisture upward. The lesson is to restrain anger and desire so that energy goes where it serves.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 41 in James Legge’s translation
“In (what is denoted by) Sun, if there be sincerity (in him who employs it), there will be great good fortune:—freedom from error; firmness and correctness that can be maintained; and advantage in every movement that shall be made. In what shall this (sincerity in the exercise of Sun) be employed? (Even) in sacrifice two baskets of grain, (though there be nothing else), may be presented.”
“(The trigram representing) a mountain and beneath it that for the waters of a marsh form Sun. The superior man, in accordance with this, restrains his wrath and represses his desires.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, shows its subject suspending his own affairs, and hurrying away (to help the subject of the fourth line). He will commit no error, but let him consider how far he should contribute of what is his (for the other).
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows that it will be advantageous for its subject to maintain a firm correctness, and that action on his part will be evil. He can give increase (to his correlate) without taking from himself
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows how of three men walking together, the number is diminished by one; and how one, walking, finds his friend.
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject diminishing the ailment under which he labours by making (the subject of the first line) hasten (to his help), and make him glad. There will be no error.
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows parties adding to (the stores of) its subject ten pairs of tortoise shells, and accepting no refusal. There will be great good fortune.
- Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, shows its subject giving increase to others without taking from himself. There will be no error. With firm correctness there will be good fortune. There will be advantage in every movement that shall be made. He will find ministers more than can be counted by their clans.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 146 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
Decrease for a decision
Reduce, simplify or give something up. A leaner plan with honest intent will work better than an extravagant one.
I Ching 41 in love and relationships
Letting go of excess demands and expectations. Less pressure can bring people closer.
Hexagram 41 at work
Budget cuts, simplification and focusing on essentials. Sacrifice in one area strengthens another.
The six lines of hexagram 41
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yin yin yin yang — what each position means.
3 yang and 3 yin lines. Two of the six stand in their proper place, and all three pairs answer each other.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Lake below — joy and openness — is the private, inner side of hexagram 41.
Mountain above — stillness and limit — is the world that side 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
The youngest son sits above and the youngest daughter below. A brother and a sister of the same rank in age, which reads as a relationship between equals.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 41
Nuclear hexagram
24 · Return
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Zhen (Thunder) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Kun (Earth) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
31 · Influence
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Mountain over Lake becomes Lake over Mountain.
Inverse hexagram
42 · Increase
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Mountain over Lake becomes Wind over Thunder.
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.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 41: Decrease.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/41/
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