I Ching Sun Meaning: Hexagram 41 Explained

Hear Sun 損 and students wrinkle the face. The character looks like taking a loss, broken wealth, being shaved. In class I peel that layer first: Sun is not bad luck. It is decrease. Decrease correctly, and Yi 益 can follow.

The picture is Mountain over Lake, Gen above Dui. Mountain above — stopping; lake below — joy, the mouth. A lake under a mountain: the water is decreased a length by the mountain, and the lake under the mountain also nourishes the mountain. That is decreasing the below to increase the above. Many people write it as Xian 咸, Lake over Mountain. Xian is Dui above Gen: a lake on a mountain, influence, mutual feeling. Reverse above and below and Sun is taught as romance, and when you should decrease you go to talk feeling.

Sun: after loosening there must be some loss

The Xu Gua says: 「緩必有所失，故受之以損。」 After loosening there must be some loss, so Sun follows. Before it is Xie 解: opening, loosening. After opening, some of what you were holding drops. Dropping is not necessarily disaster. The structure is decreasing. Draw Sun: the matter you asked about is in a stage of decreasing, letting go, sending surplus below up to what must be fed.

The Tuan says: 「損，損下益上，其道上行。」 Decrease below, increase above; the way goes upward. In a company: the base tightens first, resources gather toward the trunk. In a house: spend less, concentrate force on the one end that must be fed. In yourself: fewer desires, less temper. Not forever drawing from below to fill above. For this stretch, the way goes upward.

The judgment: 「有孚，元吉，無咎，可貞，利有攸往。曷之用？二簋可用享。」 There is sincerity: great fortune, no blame, it can persist; beneficial to go somewhere. What to use? Two bowls suffice for offering. I copy this every time. Students think Sun must be a great sacrifice, a great bleeding. The hexagram says not necessarily. The heart is there, the measure is right: thin is enough. A lavish offering is sometimes fake.

The Xiang says: 「山下有澤，損。君子以懲忿窒欲。」 A lake under the mountain, Sun. The superior person punishes anger and blocks desire. The first cut of decrease is often not money. It is anger and desire. If anger is not punished and desire not blocked, the decreases that follow all cut the wrong object: what should stay is chopped; what should be chopped stays.

Career and wealth: is what you decrease actually surplus?

Ask about career and draw Sun: as a whole, do not expand; gather in. Decrease projects, headcount, spectacle; send nourishment to the one line that can live. Cut the redundant. Do not dig out the root. The initial nine: 「已事遄往，無咎，酌損之」— when your own matter is done, go quickly; decrease with measure, no blame. Finish what is in your part, then support what is above. Decrease how much is a matter of measure, not one knife killing it.

In wealth, Sun often appears when asking about cutting costs, whether to sell, whether to drop a hole. The direction is usually: decrease correctly, great fortune. Decrease at random, chopping even the liquid funds that keep you alive, is not decreasing below to increase above. It is injuring yourself. Nine in the second: 「利貞，征凶，弗損益之」— beneficial to persist; to campaign is unfortunate; do not decrease, and you increase. Guard what is correct; going out to campaign is unfortunate. This line is often: do not attack outward, and you may not decrease — you may even increase.

Investing and drawing Sun: first ask whether this money is surplus. Surplus can be decreased, to complete something more above. Living costs, the survival position, are not two bowls used to perform sincerity. Two bowls are thin, not empty. Ask about a partnership and draw Sun: often one person must first yield profit, name, that extra length of power. After yielding, six in the fifth’s ten-peng tortoise is more likely to come.

Ask about losing weight, quitting, and this hexagram also often appears. The lake is the mouth, enjoyment; the mountain is stopping. The mouth must be stopped a length. Punish anger, block desire, in the body: one bite less, one anger less. Not humiliating yourself. Letting the mountain above remain. Ask about surgery, pulling a tooth, cutting a spoiled partnership: also Sun. What you decrease is the illness. It must be chuan 遄 — quick. Drag it chronic and it is not decreasing the illness.

Sun also often appears when asking about filial duty, support, whether to send resources upward. Decrease below to increase above: the generation at home needs it, this generation tightens a length. If there is sincerity, two bowls suffice. No sincerity, only being drawn from: watch whether the lake is already dry.

Sun in love: yield the qi, not yield the self away

Ask about love and draw Sun: someone in the bond must decrease first. What decreases may be face, frequency, the sentence “I must be right.” Not an order to be a punching bag. Decrease below to increase above: if you are already at the very bottom, decrease further and there is no above left to increase. See who yields, and to what.

Six in the third: 「三人行，則損一人；一人行，則得其友。」 Three walking, one is decreased; one walking, obtains a companion. The most common picture in love: a third voice is clipped into a two-person bond — parents, an ex, a friend group, that “we” always in the room. Draw six in the third: what you decrease is the extra person, not yourself. If you are single, sometimes it is hanging three lines at once, and the lines decrease each other. Walk one first, then you obtain a friend.

If you are already together, Sun can be seeing less for a while, spending less, quarreling less, sending force to what you jointly feed: a house, a child, one side’s difficulty. Six in the fourth: 「損其疾，使遄有喜，無咎。」 Decrease the illness, make it quick, and there is joy; no blame. The illness in love is often old resentment, a bad habit, a thorn left untreated. Decreasing illness must be quick. Drag it chronic and it is not decreasing illness. It is feeding illness.

Six in the fifth: 「或益之十朋之龜，弗克違，元吉。」 Someone may increase you with a tortoise worth ten peng; you cannot refuse; great fortune. Decrease to the middle, and someone above will fill you. So Sun is not one-way loss. First be sincere, first decrease surplus, and increase comes from the other end. Ask first “I want the ten-peng tortoise” and then pretend to decrease: the hexagram can see it.

Sun’s six lines are not all bitter — bitter is decreasing the wrong thing

The most common classroom error is treating Sun as a run of bad luck. Several lines say: decrease correctly, and it is fortunate.

Initial nine: 已事遄往，無咎，酌損之. Your own matter done, go quickly. Decrease with measure. New, lower: finish what is in your part, then support. Not martyrdom on the first move.

Nine in the second: 利貞，征凶，弗損益之. This line is often skipped. Not telling you to decrease. Telling you not to campaign. Campaign, and it is unfortunate. Do not attack at random, and you may not decrease, may increase. Ask whether to open another battlefield: nine in the second mostly says no.

Six in the third: 三人行則損一人. Relationship, partnership, team: the extra one must decrease. Three walking is not liveliness. It splits the force.

Six in the fourth: 損其疾. Decrease the illness, not the life. The object must be right. Decrease the partner and keep the illness: reading it backward.

Upper nine: 弗損益之，無咎，貞吉，利有攸往，得臣無家. At the top you may not decrease, and increase. No blame; persistence fortunate; beneficial to go; obtaining servants without a private house. Help comes, and comes publicly, not as if only tending its own house. Sun walked to the end: what should go out has gone out. Decrease further and it is too far. Draw the upper nine: stop operating on yourself. Begin using people. Begin going.

So Sun’s fortune sits on time. The Tuan later says: decrease and increase, fullness and emptiness, go with the time. When the time should decrease, decrease. When it should not, do not. Make Sun a character and a person becomes someone always cutting themselves.

In class I have students write two lists first

One is surplus. Spending, meetings, anger, night eating, relationships that do not help and only consume. This list is the material, beyond the two bowls, that can be taken to offer.

One cannot be emptied. Credit, the body, the end you truly mean to increase. This list is not for sacrifice. Empty it, and what is above also collapses.

Decrease below to increase above: the below cannot die. A lake under the mountain: dry the lake, and the mountain does not look well either. Draw Sun: decrease the overflow of the lake, not pump the lake dry.

Go with the time: the word time is tightest. Still expanding in a month that should decrease: not knowing Sun. Still cutting yourself when it should not decrease: making Sun a character. Nine in the second, campaign unfortunate; upper nine, do not decrease, increase: brakes at both ends. The middle lines are the true decrease. Align the time before you align the amount.

Two bowls suffice for offering also reminds: a small scene is not shameful. In a year of cutting costs, you can still offer, still keep ritual — the measure returns to what you can bear. An empty spectacle to keep face: face is above, and the below collapses first.

Ask whether after decrease it comes back: the next hexagram is Yi. Read together: I Ching Yi (Increase) Meaning | Hexagram 42 How to Read: Increase, How to Give Downward. Do not read above and below as Xian. Xian is influence; Sun is decrease. Feeling uses Xian; letting go, decreasing, offering uses Sun: I Ching Xian Meaning | Hexagram 31 How to Read: Influence, How to Read Feeling. Sun’s posture is close to Modesty: I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate. In peace, not knowing how to gather in, Tai turns to Pi; not decreasing when you should is like leaving fullness until it overflows: I Ching Tai Meaning | Hexagram 11 How to Read: Advance or Guard in Peace.

I Ching Sun FAQ

If I draw Sun, must wealth break, must I fall ill?

Not necessarily. Broken wealth and illness are two faces of Sun. Ask about costs, quitting, yielding a seat, speaking less, and drawing Sun is often the right topic. Treat every Sun as disaster, and when you should decrease you cannot bear to start.

Two bowls suffice for offering: is a casual gesture enough?

Thin is allowed; fake is not. The judgment begins with “there is sincerity.” Without sincerity, two plates are also perfunctory. With sincerity, two plates suffice. Using a large scene to cover an empty heart is not offering. It is acting.

I asked about losing weight or quitting smoking and drew Sun. What do I do?

Treat it as punishing anger and blocking desire, not as self-abuse. Decrease with measure: a little at a time, and go quickly to act. Campaign unfortunate: do not use extreme tactics to campaign against your own body. The body is the lake. Pump it dry and there is no next round.

Original Sun, resulting Yi: can I begin to expand?

The direction walks toward increase. The cut in front of you often still has to be finished. Yi is decreasing above to increase below: that is later. If surplus has not been decreased now, the increase that follows will increase the wrong place.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.