Sun to Lin: return a loss-making shipyard, or keep it?

1876 (Meiji 9) · Ōura O-Kei and a partner, merchants of Nagasaki · 中文版

The cast

Hexagram 41 Sǔn (Decrease), line 6 (top) moving, changing to Hexagram 19 Lín (Approach).

Original text

明治九年。長崎商人大浦阿啓。與神代某來曰。前自驛遞局。借與橫濱製鐵所。從事船舶修繕。後因得不償失。大被虧損。計將返納於驛遞局。或轉讓與他人。兩者未決。請占其孰可。筮得損之臨。爻辭曰。上九弗損益之。无咎。貞吉。利有攸往。得臣无家。斷曰。此爻爲損之極。今後更無所損。不損則必有所益。故其辭曰。弗損益之。无咎。貞吉。利有攸往也。二友信之。遂決計續承其業。翌年有西南之役。船舶修繕繁多。大得利益云。

In plain words

In 1876 two Nagasaki merchants, Ōura O-Kei and a partner, came and said: some time ago we took over the Yokohama ironworks on loan from the postal and transport bureau to do ship repairs, but it has cost more than it earns and we have lost heavily. We are thinking of returning it to the bureau or selling it on to someone else, and cannot decide which. Please divine which is better. The cast gave Sun with its top line moving, changing into Lin. The line reads: "Nine at the top: not decreasing but increasing; no fault; steadfastness is good; it is favourable to go somewhere; one gains servants but no household."

Takashima's judgment: this line is the far end of Decrease; from here there is nothing more to lose. When decrease stops, increase must come. Hence the line: "not decreasing but increasing; no fault; steadfastness is good; favourable to go somewhere".

The two believed it and decided to carry on with the business. The next year the Satsuma Rebellion broke out, there was a great deal of ship repair work, and they made a large profit.

How Takashima read it

Only one line text is read: with one moving line, the top line of Sun is read.
The line's place is the extreme: the top line ends Decrease, and decrease carried to its end turns into increase, the idea that things reverse at their limit.
"Not decreasing but increasing; favourable to go somewhere" is read as: do not cut your losses by handing it back or selling; keep going.
The judgment is very short, little more than a restatement of the line; its weight rests on the idea that things turn once they reach bottom.

About the outcome

The large profit is Takashima's own record, and the turnaround came from repair work generated by the Satsuma Rebellion the following year, an outside event nobody could have planned for. A decision to carry on happened to meet unexpected good luck, and the book records it as the reading coming true. This site does not treat it as evidence.

Applying it to your situation

"The far end of decrease" suggests the bottom may be where things turn. But it cannot tell you whether this is the bottom. What makes you think you have reached it, and if you have not, how much more could you bear?

Original: Takashima Kaemon, Takashima Ekidan (expanded edition), recorded by Yanagida Ikusaku, Chinese text by Wang Zhiben, 1901. Translation, notes and reflection by this site.

These are historical records kept by the diviner himself. The outcomes are his own account; this site uses them to study how the lines were read, not as evidence that divination predicts events.

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