Decrease
Line 3 changes · Great Accumulation
Six values, bottom to top: 7, 7, 6, 8, 8, 7
How to follow these figures
The primary figure supplies the starting text. Read every changing line from bottom to top. The relating figure supplies another text to compare, not a forecast.
Start with the opening, then each changing line and the relating text. Open the Chinese or Plain English wherever it helps.
Primary opening
Zhouyi textThere is sincerity: great good fortune. No blame. Steadfastness is possible. Having somewhere to go is favorable. What is to be used? Two gui vessels may be used for an offering.
Translation note
可 is kept both with 贞 and with 用享. Gui is retained as a vessel name, and 享 is an offering in this clause. The question mark in 曷之用？ belongs to the project punctuation layer.
Chinese text & Plain English
有孚，元吉。无咎，可贞，利有攸往。曷之用？二簋可用享。
Plain English
Sincerity is paired with great good fortune and no blame. Steadfastness is possible, and having somewhere to go is favorable. The question about what to use is answered with two gui vessels for an offering.
Line 3
Zhouyi textThree people travel, then one person is lost. One person travels, then gains a friend.
Translation note
The two clauses repeat 人行 and 则 but change the number and the outcome. 友 names a friend; the text does not give a name or destination.
Chinese text & Plain English
三人行，则损一人；一人行，则得其友。
Plain English
The three-person journey loses one person; the one-person journey gains a friend.
Relating opening
Zhouyi textSteadfastness is favorable. Not eating at home: good fortune. Crossing the great river is favorable.
Translation note
不家食 is rendered not eating at home, without identifying a host or a form of support. 吉 remains with that phrase. The two occurrences of 利 introduce different things appraised as favorable.
Chinese text & Plain English
利贞，不家食吉，利涉大川。
Plain English
The opening speaks of steadfastness, eating away from home, and crossing a great river. Each phrase retains its own appraisal.
The Image · commentary
Traditional commentaryA lake below the mountain: Decrease. A person of integrity thereby restrains anger and checks desire.
Translation note
惩 and 窒 are provisionally restraining and checking. Their objects are anger and desire. This is the Image commentary layer.
Chinese text & Plain English
山下有泽，损；君子以惩忿窒欲。
Plain English
The Image places a lake below a mountain beside a person of integrity restraining anger and checking desire.
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Reading Decrease alongside Great Accumulation
The changing line presents two journeys, but gives neither a destination.…
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Other lines · free reference
Line 1
Zhouyi textOnce the matter is completed, go swiftly. No blame. Weigh how much to decrease it.
Translation note
已事 follows this edition’s selected 已 reading: the business is completed. 酌 is rendered as weighing the amount of decrease; 之 leaves its object unnamed.
Chinese text & Plain English
已事遄往，无咎，酌损之。
Plain English
Once the matter is completed, the passage turns to swift going, no blame, and a considered decrease.
Line 2
Zhouyi textSteadfastness is favorable. Going forth: misfortune. No decrease; increasing it.
Translation note
弗 negates 损, while 益之 retains a verb and its unnamed object. The wording does not specify whose resources are decreased or who receives the increase.
Chinese text & Plain English
利贞。征凶。弗损，益之。
Plain English
Steadfastness is favorable, while going forth receives misfortune. Decrease is negated and increase is stated.
Line 4
Zhouyi textDecreasing the ailment, causing joy to come swiftly. No blame.
Translation note
疾 is provisionally an ailment. 使 is rendered as causing, with 遄 retaining swiftness. The compact clause leaves the people involved unnamed.
Chinese text & Plain English
损其疾，使遄有喜。无咎。
Plain English
An ailment is decreased, joy is brought swiftly, and no blame is stated.
Line 5
Zhouyi textSomeone increases it with a tortoise worth ten peng; it cannot be refused. Great good fortune.
Translation note
朋 is retained as the value term peng in 十朋之龟. 或 is someone; 弗克违 is provisionally cannot be refused. The precise value and the people involved remain unspecified.
Chinese text & Plain English
或益之十朋之龟，弗克违。元吉。
Plain English
Someone adds a tortoise valued at ten peng. It cannot be refused, and great good fortune is stated.
Line 6
Zhouyi textNo decrease; increasing it. No blame. Steadfastness: good fortune. Having somewhere to go is favorable. Gaining a servant, without a household.
Translation note
The punctuation leaves the appraisals distinct. 得臣无家 is kept compact: the exact relation of without a household to the servant and the act of gaining remains open.
Chinese text & Plain English
弗损，益之。无咎，贞吉。利有攸往。得臣无家。
Plain English
Decrease is negated and increase stated, alongside no blame and good fortune attached to steadfastness. Having somewhere to go is favorable. The final phrase joins gaining a servant with being without a household.
Words in this reading
元
元: great.
吉
吉: Good fortune.
凶
凶: misfortune.
咎
咎: blame.
无咎
无咎: no blame.
贞
贞: Steadfastness.
利贞
利贞: Steadfastness is favorable.
利
利: favorable.
有攸往
有攸往: Having somewhere to go.
往
往: go.
征
征: Going forth.
君子
君子: person of integrity.
朋
朋: peng.
孚
孚: sincerity.
簋
簋: gui vessels.
利涉大川
利涉大川: Crossing the great river is favorable.
Free background
What may be used
The opening does not end with its appraisals. 曷之用 asks about use, and 二簋可用享 answers with two vessels and an offering. 可 also occurs earlier in 可贞, where its companion is steadfastness rather than an object. Keeping these two constructions visible allows the opening to move from an available stance to specified means without making them the same claim.
Objects of restraint
The Image gives each act an object: 惩 concerns anger, and 窒 concerns desire. The fourth line likewise names an object in 损其疾, while the first leaves the object of 酌损之 unnamed. These different degrees of specificity matter. The Image’s anger and desire do not silently fill the earlier pronouns or rename the ailment.
Decrease does not have one object
The third line attaches decrease to one person, the fourth to an ailment, and the first to an unnamed object whose decrease is to be weighed. The second and sixth instead negate decrease before stating increase. The fifth supplies a concrete object for increase: a tortoise. Read together, these clauses make the objects and negations carry the argument. The title alone cannot tell us what is removed, what is added, or how that act is appraised.
Sources for this reading
The Image is commentary. The guide is our editorial reading.
- 周易注疏十三卷 · Scan pages 179, 243, 244, 245, 246
- 周易本義, Harvard drs15902269, host volume 3 · Scan pages 19
- 周易九卷略例一卷 · Scan pages 52, 53
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