Li · The Clinging Fire

The meaning

What the name means Li is clinging, and fire: something must be held to before it can shine.

The picture Fire above and fire below, light following light, as one day follows another.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about brightness and what it relies on. A fire needs fuel to burn and a person needs something real to rely on. A great deal of light also scorches, so stay gentle and keep measure.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

Like fire, it needs something to cling to in order to shine. Find a light worth clinging to, and do not burn too fast.

The upper trigram is Fire and the lower is Fire: Fire above, Fire below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

利貞，亨。畜牝牛，吉。

The image

明兩作，離；大人以繼明照於四方。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初九履錯然，敬之無咎。
2. 六二黃離，元吉。
3. 九三日昃之離，不鼓缶而歌，則大耋之嗟，兇。
4. 九四突如其來如，焚如，死如，棄如。
5. 六五出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉。
6. 上九王用出徵，有嘉折首，獲匪其醜，無咎。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".