Hexagram 41: Sun

Mountain over Lake · 山泽损 · Tendency: Inauspicious

Structure

• Number: 41 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷨
• Upper trigram: Gen (Mountain)
• Lower trigram: Dui (Lake)
• Lines: yang yang yin yin yin yang (bottom to top)

The statement

有孚，元吉，无咎。可贞，利有攸往。曷之用？二簋可用享。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates that it is necessary to give up a part in exchange for long-term balance. Suitable for controlling desires, cutting costs, and letting go of unnecessary obsessions. In the short term, it may feel like a loss, but if you actively adjust, you can avoid greater consumption.

A Buddhist reading

In terms of inner practice, Sun (Decrease) means increasing the path while decreasing birth and death: as practice grows by degrees, ingrained habit shrinks by degrees. Ouyi Zhixu is most concrete on the image: what most needs decreasing in the mind is anger and craving. Curbing anger is like leveling a mountain and blocking craving is like filling a ravine, and the work goes on until the ground of the mind is flat again. On the two simple bowls of offering he insists that sincerity, not quantity, is what makes an offering. He adds that trusting the buddha realm to be present within the nine ordinary realms of living beings is the great good fortune here, so there is no need to leave your present condition and look for it elsewhere.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous: Hexagram 40: Xie
• Next / Inverted: Hexagram 42: Yithe whole figure turned upside down
• Opposite: Hexagram 31: Xianevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 24: Fulines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.