A source-first reading note for Hexagram 41, Sun (Decrease), with a reference translation, trigram frame, and one reversible observation practice.
Reference translation
Decrease: with sincerity, supreme good fortune. No blame. One may be persevering. It is favorable to undertake something. How is this to be carried out? Two small bowls may be used for the sacrifice. The Image says: Decrease means diminishing below and augmenting above; its way moves upward. When decrease is joined with sincerity, there is supreme good fortune, no blame, one may persevere, and it is favorable to go forth. Wherein lies its use? Two simple bowls suffice for the offering. Yet the two bowls have their proper season; the lessening of the firm and the strengthening of the yielding have their season. Decrease and increase, fullness and emptiness — each moves together with the time.
See the original-text and authority layers in the complete catalog entry.
Context from the authority layer
The hexagram image of "a lake beneath the mountain" symbolizes the meaning of "diminishing what is below to benefit what is above." If we reason from the image, the lower yang ascending to benefit the upper kun-yin realizes the ideal of diminishing material substance in order to "cultivate virtue." Among the six lines of the hexagram, the Nine in the Second, the Six in the Fifth, and the Top Nine are all attached with the phrase "benefit it," and the Six in the Fifth and the Top Nine go even further, being "benefited" and thus "auspicious." Viewed from this angle, what fault can there be in diminishing?
Read the structure before the slogan
The lower trigram is 兑 (泽), associated in the bundled corpus with 悦; the upper trigram is 艮 (山), associated with 止. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
One accountable observation practice
Copy one concrete verb, condition, or image from the reference translation for Hexagram 41. Name one place where it is observable in the situation you are examining. Then choose one small step you can reverse and write the condition that would make you review it.
Common misread to avoid
Do not turn Decrease into a personality label, a guaranteed event, or a verdict about another person. The translation and trigram frame are source layers to examine, not an instruction to surrender judgment.
Source boundary
The reference translation and context are drawn from Yarrow's bundled structured Zhouyi authority layer. Yarrow keeps that layer separate from optional modern reflection. This page does not claim that Hexagram 41 was cast for your question.