I Ching · King Wen 41 of 64
Hexagram 41 — Decrease (Sǔn)
- simplicity
- sacrifice
- sincerity
Mountain (keeping still) over Lake (joy and openness)
Meaning
Decrease below increases above. Willing simplicity and controlled sacrifice bring supreme good fortune when done with sincerity.
The lake at the mountain's base gives up its vapor to nourish the heights — decrease below, increase above, loss transmuted into offering. The radical claim is that voluntary simplicity performed with sincerity outranks lavishness performed for show: two small bowls suffice for the sacrifice.
Love & Relationships
Less display, more devotion; sincerity outweighs lavishness. Strip the relationship to what is actually essential — time, honesty, presence — and discover how little of the expensive scaffolding it needed. Sacrifice made visible as scorekeeping is not sacrifice.
Career & Work
Cut expenses and ego; lean operations with honest aims prosper. Cut with a scalpel and say why: costs, projects, and ego all respond to principled reduction. Lean organizations built on candor outlast rich ones built on padding.
Advice
Curb anger and desires; two simple bowls offered sincerely suffice. Hold this counsel lightly but seriously: the I Ching describes the shape of the moment, and Decrease rewards those who move with that shape rather than against it.
Changing Lines
Changing lines in Decrease examine the ethics of giving and giving up — going quickly when the task is done, increasing others without decreasing oneself, and the three walking together who lose one another. A moving line asks what your particular decrease is for, and whether it is flowing to something genuinely higher.
Cast your own reading
Consulting the I Ching about a real question is different from reading about it. Cast the three coins online, receive your hexagram and changing lines, and see whether Decrease — or one of its 63 companions — answers you.
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Frequently asked questions
- What does Hexagram 41 mean?
- Hexagram 41, Decrease (Sǔn), is the hexagram of simplicity, sacrifice, sincerity: Decrease below increases above.
- What does Hexagram 41 mean for love?
- In love readings, Decrease counsels: Less display, more devotion; sincerity outweighs lavishness. Strip the relationship to what is actually essential — time, honesty, presence — and discover how little of the expensive scaffolding it needed. Sacrifice made visible as scorekeeping is not sacrifice.
- Is Hexagram 41 a good hexagram?
- In the I Ching no hexagram is simply good or bad — each describes a moment in time and how to meet it well. Decrease centers on simplicity and sacrifice, and its outcome depends on following its counsel: Curb anger and desires; two simple bowls offered sincerely suffice. Read as guidance rather than a verdict, it points the way to the best available outcome.