above Gen, Keeping Still, mountain · below Dui, the Joyous, lake
This is a time when something is growing less: money, strength or opportunities. Joined with truthfulness, decrease turns out very well, and there is no shame in simplicity. Two small bowls may be used for the offering, says the Judgement. The Image names what needs decreasing: anger and the urges, so that the higher sides of the soul are enriched. Express what matters to you with modest means, and keep anger and desire in check. Hiding poverty behind empty show would be the wrong course.
What could you leave out without losing anything of value?
The sign represents a decrease of the lower sign in favour of the upper: the third line, originally strong, has moved up, and the top line, originally weak, has taken its place. So what is below is decreased for the sake of what is above. But that is decrease pure and simple. If one reduces the foundation of a building and strengthens its upper walls, the whole loses its firmness. In the same way, decreasing the prosperity of the people in favour of the government is decrease pure and simple. And the whole tendency of the sign is to show how this shift of prosperity can take place without the sources of prosperity among the people and its lower classes drying up as a result.
Some old words keep coming back in Wilhelm’s sayings:
Decrease joined with truthfulnessbrings supreme good fortune without blame.One may be persevering in this.It is favourable to undertake something.How does one put it into practice?Two small bowls may be used for the offering.
Decrease does not mean something bad under all circumstances. Increase and decrease come in their own time. What matters then is to accept the time and not to try to hide poverty behind empty show. If a time of meagre things brings an inner truth to expression, one need not be ashamed of simplicity. It is then exactly what is right, for it lends the inner strength through which one can undertake something again. One should have no misgivings even if the outward beauty of culture, indeed even the shaping of one’s relations with the divine, were to suffer from this simplicity. One must take something from the strength of one’s inner disposition and add it to the meagreness of the outward appearance to make up for it. Then the power of the content carries one past the plainness of the form. Before God there is no need of false show. Even with modest means the disposition of the heart can find expression.
Cf. the widow’s mite in the Gospel of Luke.
At the foot of the mountain lies the lake: the image of decrease.Thus the noble one curbs his anger and checks his urges.
The lake at the foot of the mountain evaporates. In this way it is decreased for the benefit of the mountain, which is enriched by its moisture. The mountain is the image of stubborn strength, which can condense into anger; the lake is the image of uncontrolled merriment, which can grow into passionate urges if it develops at the expense of the forces of life. Here decrease is needed: anger must be decreased by keeping still, and the urges must be curbed by restraint. Through this decrease of the lower powers of the soul, its higher sides are enriched.
Wilhelm placed the signs ○ and □ after certain lines (p. 334 f.). They mark the rulers of the hexagram. □ stands by the constituting ruler: the line that gives the hexagram its meaning, however high it stands and whatever its character. ○ stands by the governing ruler. It is always of good character and becomes ruler through the meaning of the time and its position, usually in the fifth place. Where a line is both, it carries ○.
When the business is done, to go there quicklyis no blame.But one must considerhow far one may decrease others.
This line shows someone who, once their own tasks are done, steps in quickly to help others without making a fuss. That is not a mistake. If you are the one being helped, consider how much you can accept without doing the helper real harm; only where that delicacy is present can the other person give themselves fully and without misgivings.
It is unselfish and good, once one’s own pressing tasks are done, to place one’s strength at the service of others and, without making much of it or boasting, to help quickly where help is needed. But the man in a higher place who is helped in this way must consider carefully how much he may accept without doing real harm to the helpful servant or friend. Only where such delicacy of feeling is present can one give oneself without reserve and without misgivings.
Perseverance is favourable.To undertake something brings misfortune.Without decreasing oneself,one is able to increase others.
Anyone who wants to serve others needs healthy self-respect and an earnestness that never cheapens itself. Don’t throw yourself away to please someone above you: your standing suffers, and in the long run it does the other person no good either. Serve without giving yourself up; rushing into an undertaking here turns out badly.
A noble self-respect and a consistent earnestness that never cheapens itself: this is the attitude needed if one wishes to serve others. Whoever throws himself away to do the will of a superior does diminish his own standing, but without being of lasting use to the other. And that is an evil. To serve the other without giving oneself up: only that is true service of lasting worth.
When three people travel together,they are reduced by one.When one person travels,he finds his companion.
The three travellers show how easily jealousy arises among three until one has to give way; the closest bond is possible only between two. If there is one person too many in your situation, accept it without resentment. And if you are travelling alone, trust that you will find the companion who completes you.
Where three are together, jealousy arises. One of them has to give way. The closest bond is possible only between two. But where someone is alone, he is sure to find the companion who completes him.
If one decreases one’s faults,one makes the other come in haste and be glad.No blame.
This is about your own faults, which keep even well-meaning people from coming closer and are often made worse by your surroundings. If you can bring yourself to lay those faults aside, you free the others from an inner pressure. That is not a mistake: they will then come to you all the more quickly, and the joy is on both sides.
Our faults often keep even well-meaning people from coming closer to us. These faults are often strengthened and made worse by the surroundings in which we find ourselves. If one can bring oneself to climb down and lay them aside, one frees one’s well-meaning friends from an inner pressure and causes them to draw near all the more quickly, to the joy of both.
Someone surely increases him.Ten pairs of tortoises cannot stand against it.Supreme good fortune!
Here good fortune arrives as if from a higher power: every sign is favourable, and nothing can hold it back. In this situation you have nothing to fear. Accept what comes your way and trust that this good fortune is meant for you; it turns out very well.
When someone is destined by fate for good fortune, it comes without fail. All oracles, such as those obtained from tortoise shells, must agree in favourable signs on his behalf. He need fear nothing, for his good fortune is the doing of a higher power.
If one is increased without decreasing others,this is no blame. Perseverance brings good fortune.It is favourable to undertake something.One obtains servants,but no longer has a home of one’s own.
This describes a gain that leaves nobody else with less, because it benefits everyone. There is nothing wrong with a gain of this kind. Keep at your work and tackle what needs doing, and it turns out well; the helpers you need will appear. What you build in this way stays open and accessible to everyone and never becomes a private advantage of your own.
There are people who bestow blessings on the whole world. Every gain in strength, every increase that falls to their share, benefits all people and therefore means no decrease for others. Through persevering and diligent work one has success and finds such helpers as one needs. But what one brings about is not a private advantage of any limited kind; it is open and accessible to everyone.
Would you like to put your own question to the I Ching? Six throws of three coins, and the answer appears straight away.
Consult the I ChingTexts by Richard Wilhelm: I Ging. Das Buch der Wandlungen (first edition Jena 1924), translated into English by NUMEN COMPASS from the Diederichs edition, Munich 1996. Wilhelm’s German text is in the public domain. The section ‘What the hexagram says today’, the question for you and the short notes under the lines are our own reading. The I Ching is no substitute for medical, legal or psychological advice.