Decrease
Mountain over lake, the image of giving up something now to build something later.
Decrease combined with sincerity brings about supreme good fortune.
Lake at the foot of the mountain, the image of decrease. The superior person controls their anger and restrains their instincts.
In plain terms: Hexagram 41, "Decrease", is one of the 64 symbols in the I Ching — an ancient Chinese book you consult for guidance, a bit like asking a wise advisor. Its core message: mountain over lake, the image of giving up something now to build something later..
Modern Interpretation
A decrease hexagram about voluntary reduction in service of long term gain. Lake decreases as it nourishes the mountain; the visible loss enables a larger growth. The classical counsel is that decrease undertaken with sincere motive produces good fortune. In modern terms this is the decision to take less salary to build equity, the reduction in lifestyle to fund the long horizon project, the pruning of the company to focus on the right work. Decrease without sincere direction is just loss; decrease in service of vision is investment.
Application by Life Domain
Make a sacrifice for the long horizon. Voluntary decrease now (one less luxury, one fewer outside attention) compounds.
Cut what cannot be saved to fund what must grow. Sincere reduction now creates the next chapter.
Yes, make the cut. The decrease is investment, not loss.
Practice the discipline of sincere reduction. What you give up willingly becomes what you build with.
The Trigrams of This Hexagram
Upper: Gen (艮)
Mountain, Keeping Still, stillness and limit. In Five Element terms: Yang Earth.
Lower: Dui (兑)
Lake, the Joyous, openness and exchange. In Five Element terms: Yin Metal.
Other Hexagrams
Browse other hexagrams in the I Ching sequence.