Decrease

Decrease, also called Sun or Hexagram 41, treats reduction as a means of restoring what is out of balance, not as an end in itself. Its decisive condition is sincerity: when excess is restrained or resources are contributed for a rightful purpose, even a modest offering can be accepted, and the resulting action can bring good fortune without error.

Meaning and Scope

The hexagram’s interpretation is difficult because its central image of diminution can be read narrowly as taxation. The accompanying commentary notes that this reading presents a subject as contributing what belongs to him to his ruler or to the expenses of government, and identifies earlier translations that make taxation the explicit example. It allows that King Wen may have seen taxation in the figures, but distinguishes that possibility from the broader interpretation attributed to his son.

On that broader reading, Decrease encompasses restraining or reducing whatever one has in excess so that it accords with right and reason. The subject is therefore not simply asked to surrender resources. Reduction has a measure and an ethical direction: it corrects imbalance, and its justification lies in the rightness of the purpose it serves.

Sincerity and the Small Offering

The text makes sincerity the condition that turns diminution into good fortune. Its promised results include freedom from error, firmness and correctness that can be maintained, and advantage in every movement. It then tests the principle against a solemn act of sacrifice: two baskets of grain may be presented even when nothing else is available. The smallness of the material gift does not disqualify it; sincerity gives a limited contribution its fitness and worth.

The commentary connects this example to the correction of excess. Whether the act is a great undertaking or a small contribution toward one, a sincere offering can lead to the happiest results. The contrast between the gravity of sacrifice and the meagreness of two baskets makes the standard clear: proper intent and proportion matter more than material abundance.

Reduction in Practice

The hexagram’s account of action distinguishes helping another from giving without judgment. Its first line shows a person setting aside his own affairs and hurrying to assist the subject of the fourth line; the accompanying judgment says he will make no error, but should consider how much of his own resources to contribute. The impulse to help is approved, while deliberation sets its proper limit.

The second line makes the counterweight explicit: its subject should maintain firm correctness, and taking action would be wrong. Yet he can increase his correlate without diminishing himself. Together, these instructions resist a simplistic equation between generosity and self-deprivation. Assistance may call for giving, but its amount and form must fit the circumstances; in some cases another can be benefited without loss to the giver.

At the topmost line, the pattern reaches its fullest expression. Its subject increases others without taking from himself, commits no error, and gains good fortune through firm correctness; every movement is advantageous. The promised ministers, too many to be counted by their clans, give this final image a public dimension: benefit can extend outward and draw broad support without requiring the benefactor’s own depletion.

Ethical Logic

The different examples make Decrease a teaching about judgment as much as restraint. A contribution may be required, but not every act of giving is right; aid should be measured, action may sometimes need to be withheld, and benefit need not always come at the giver’s expense. Sincerity joins these distinctions to a common principle: reduce excess in accordance with right and reason, and let the correction—not the mere fact of loss—determine what is fitting.

The hexagram’s range therefore runs from a small sacrificial offering to assistance between counterparts and, finally, to the support of many ministers. Across those scales, its promise depends on maintained firmness and correctness. Reduction becomes fortunate when it restores proportion and serves a sound purpose; the text does not commend indiscriminate sacrifice.