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Hexagram 35 — Sun, Decrease
Chronological no. 35 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 41 · 損
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the youngest son
the youngest daughter
Beneath the mountain, the Lake: the image of decrease. The water below evaporates toward the height, seeming to impoverish itself to nourish what towers over it — a loss that, in truth, serves a wider balance. This is the figure of renunciation that benefits something greater than oneself. Thus the noble one restrains his anger and contains his desires: decreasing what is excessive in oneself is often the condition for something else to grow.
Returning to the center demands consenting to lose what encumbered. One returns to the essential only by accepting to let go of what, over time, proved superfluous. This line says not every loss is impoverishment — some decreases are the very condition of the return to what truly matters.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 28 — Xian, Influence (63 − 35 = 28): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 28, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 36 — Gen, Keeping Still
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☶ Gen): 32 — Bo, Splitting Apart · 33 — Yi, Nourishment · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 36 — Gen, Keeping Still · 37 — Bi, Grace · 38 — Gu, Work on What Has Been Spoiled · 39 — Da Chu, The Taming Power of the Great
Same lower trigram (☱ Dui): 3 — Lin, Approach · 11 — Gui Mei, The Marrying Maiden · 19 — Jie, Limitation · 27 — Dui, The Joyous · 43 — Kui, Opposition · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth · 59 — Lu, Treading
