Hexagram 41: 損

sǔn — decrease, diminish, reduce, economize (ing)

Upper TrigramMountain

Lower TrigramLake

Judgment

損sǔndecrease, diminish, reduce, economize (ing)

有yǒuhave, find; remember

孚fútrue, sincere; confidence; to trust

元yuánmost, supremely; excellent, outstanding

吉jípromising, fortunate; promise, opportunity

無wúno; nothing; (this is) not; without, with no

咎jiùblame; (is) wrong; (a) mistake, (an) error (s)

可kě(but it) call, ask (s) for; indicates (ing)

貞zhēnpersistence, resolution, resolve, focus

利lìworth(while), reward(ing), benefit(icial)

有yǒu(to) have, find, take on; (if) there is

攸yōusomewhere; (a) place, direction, purpose

往wǎngto go, move towards; in going; ahead

曷héhow; what, when, where

之zhīis this; is, will be

用yòng(to be) applied? practiced? carried out?

二èrtwo; a couple, pair of

簋guǐ(small, simple, plain) rice baskets; "gui" tureens

可kěcould, may, might be (sufficient)

用yòngpresented, offered, consecrated, used

享xiǎng(as, for, in) (an, the) offering, sacrifice

Decrease combined with sincerity brings supreme good fortune. What matters is understanding the time. Simplicity becomes strength. The freed memory enables the program to run.

Image

山shānmountain

下xiàbelow, beneath; at the base, foot of v

有yǒuis, there is

澤zé(a, the) lake, pool, pond, wetland, marsh

損sǔndecreasing

君jūn(a, the) noble, worthy, honored

子zǐyoung one, heir, disciple

以yǐaccordingly, therefore, thus

懲chéngcorrects, curbs, rectifies, precludes, rules out

忿fènhard feeling, ill will, resentment, indignity (s)

窒zhì(and) controls, contains, resists, restrains

欲yùdesires, temptations, passions, cravings

At the foot of the mountain, the lake. Thus the superior man controls his anger and restrains his instincts. Not suppression—direction. Channel the energy, don't just eliminate it.

Digital Artifact

DOS Memory Management: Freeing Conventional RAM

Microsoft/IBM PC Architecture (1981)

Early PC users faced a brutal constraint: 640KB of conventional memory. That's it. You wanted to run that new game? First you had to unload your mouse driver. TSRs eating up precious RAM. Every kilobyte mattered. The ritual was straightforward: strip down CONFIG.SYS, remove unnecessary drivers, disable EMS managers you didn't need. MEMMAKER would eventually automate this, but the principle remained—sacrifice the unnecessary to run what matters. Not loss for its own sake, but strategic reduction. You couldn't add more memory to that address space; the 8088 architecture simply wouldn't see it. So you learned: decrease below (conventional memory) to enable capability above (actual programs running). The lake evaporating to nourish the mountain. Less TSR bloat meant more space for the application that actually needed to execute.

Historical Context

Period: Zhou Dynasty
Oracle Bone Etymology: Mountain (☶) sits above, Lake (☱) sits below—stillness over joy, restraint over expansion.
Traditional Use: Wilhelm describes decrease not as loss but as redistribution—the lower gives to the upper, foundations support what rises above them.

Lines

Line 1: 已事遄往無咎酌損之

已yǐone's (own), personal, private

事shìaffairs, concerns, tasks, endeavors, business

遄chuán(are) rushed, hurried, cut short, abbreviated

往wǎngto go; in going, pass (ing, ed by); (and) left behind

無wúno; not, nothing; without; no harm (is) done

咎jiùblame; (is) wrong; (a) mistake; v harm v

酌zhuó(but) weigh, consider, think about, ponder

損sǔndecreasing, doing less; (the) losses; (a) loss

之zhī(of) this; here; this as v

Line 2: 利貞征凶弗損益之

利lì(it is) worthwhile, rewarding, beneficial

貞zhēnto persist; be resolved, dedicated, steadfast

征zhēng(but) to expedite, assert, go(ing) boldly

凶xiōng(is) ill-omened, inauspicious; has pitfalls

弗fú(there is) neither, nothing; avoid(ing)

損sǔn(of, to) decrease, loss; lose, diminish

益yì(nor, or) (of, to) increase; gain, add (s) to

之zhīhere; in, with this; things; one(self)

Line 3: 三人行則損一人一人行則得其友

三sānthree, a trio of

人rénpeople, persons, individuals

行xíngstart, set forth, out; go forth, forward

則zé(and) then, in due order; consequently

損sǔndecrease, reduce, contract; lose

一yī(by) one

人rénperson, member, participant, individual

一yī(this) one; (a, the) single

人rénperson, individual; one

行xíngstarts, sets forth, out; goes forth, forward

則zé(and) then, in due order; consequently

得définds, acquires, gains, takes on, picks up

其qía, the, his, her, another

友yǒucompanion, friend, partner, associate

Line 4: 損其疾使遄有喜無咎

損sǔndecreasing, diminishing, lessening, losing

其qíthe, these, those, one's (own)

疾jíafflictions, anxieties, stresses, ills, sufferings

使shǐ(to) take(ing) control, charge, command

遄chuánexpeditiously, with dispatch; (and) expedite

有yǒu(and) be; find, have; becomes, brings

喜xǐglad, happy, grateful; happiness, joy

無wú(this is) no; not; nothing; without, with no

咎jiùwrong; (a) mistake, (an) error

Line 5: 或益之十朋之龜弗克違元吉

或huòsomebody, someone

益yìincreases, augments, grants, adds

之zhī(to) (this) one, him, her; this

十shí(by) ten

朋péng(matched) pairs

之zhīof

龜guītortoise, turtle (s) (shells)

弗fú(one) (is) not; un-; in-; -not

克kèable; possible; capable; can- v

違wéi(of, to) resist; refuse; oppose, offend (ing)

元yuánmost, supremely; excellent, outstanding

吉jípromising, fortunate; promise, opportunity

Line 6: 弗損益之無咎貞吉利有攸往得臣無家

弗fú(there is) neither, nothing; avoid(ing)

損sǔn(of, to) decrease, loss; lose, diminish

益yì(nor, or) (of, to) increase; gain, add (s)

之zhīhere; in, with this; things; one(self)

無wú(there is) nothing; (this is) no, not

咎jiù(is) wrong; (a) mistake, (an) error

貞zhēnpersistence, determination, resolve, focus

吉jí(is) promising, auspicious, opportune, timely

利lìworth(while), reward(ing), benefit(icial)

有yǒu(to) have, find, take on; (if) there is

攸yōusomewhere; (a) place, direction, purpose

往wǎngto go, move towards; in going; ahead

得dé(but) (one) accept, gain, acquire, find (s, ing)

臣chénservants, retainers, subjects, subordinates

無wú(but) not; instead of, rather than

家jiāfamily, familiars; (a) home

Practical Guidance

You're hitting constraints. The system can't do everything simultaneously. Something has to go. Here's what this probably means: this isn't failure—it's optimization. Every experienced developer knows the moment. You've been adding features, complexity accumulating, and suddenly the elegant solution appears: remove this entire subsystem. Not because it's broken, but because it's unnecessary. The code gets lighter. Performance improves. Maintenance burden drops. The warning isn't 'never reduce.' It's: don't reduce randomly. Don't gut your foundations to add cosmetic features above. The decrease must be sincere—genuinely unnecessary, not just temporarily inconvenient. Like those DOS users: you didn't unload your disk controller to free memory. You unloaded the fancy RAM disk that seemed clever last week but you never actually used. Simplicity with purpose. That's the pattern. And yes, it requires letting go of things you built. That's fine. You built them; you can let them go. What remains works better.

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