Increase Amid Danger
Updated 2026-08-10
INTRODUCTION
English translation pending.
CORE DEFINITION
From the Yi Jing's line on increase, which warns that seeking to add without a settled and consistent intention brings misfortune, leaving the seeker without support and exposed to attack. The core proposition is that growth pursued for its own sake destabilizes the system that produces it, because the increase is not balanced by any corresponding structure. The qualification is that the warning targets unconstrained accumulation rather than growth as such. Its use is as a check on expansion that ignores system balance.
SCAFFOLDING EFFECT
Reduce cognitive load
- Growth motive check: ask whether the increase serves a settled purpose or is pursued for its own sake. - Balance test: check whether the system's supporting structure can carry the added scale. - Backlash scan: identify who is being depleted or squeezed by the growth and how they may respond.
Anchor fast decisions
Growth consumes supporting resources and shifts the distribution of benefits, so beyond a point the parties that sustain the system lose more than they gain and withdraw cooperation. Because the accumulation continues regardless, the withdrawal arrives as a sudden loss of support rather than a gradual slowdown, which is why unrestrained increase converts its own success into vulnerability.
MINIMUM ACTION
In progress 0/1Practice this model in one real situation:
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Source support: Explicit
- zh.wikisource.orghttps://zh.wikisource.org/wiki/%E5%91%A8%E6%98%93/%E7%9B%8Averified
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