Hexagram 36
Darkening of the Light
Earth over Fire
The judgment
利艰贞The light has gone under the earth and the surface is dark. Holding it inside has a price, and displaying it in this season has a higher one.
The image
Fire is buried under the plain and the ground stays cold. What burns out of sight still burns.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初九Line 1
明夷于飞，垂其翼。君子于行，三日不食，有攸往，主人有言
It takes flight, but with wings drooping, skimming low. On the road three days without food; the place one means to reach is still ahead, and at the gate the host has words to say first.
- 六二Line 2
明夷，夷于左股，用拯马壮，吉
The wound falls on the left thigh, exactly the side that pushes. Stanch the bleeding first, then borrow a strong horse to carry the load forward; the road still joins up.
Marked in the textauspicious
- 九三Line 3
明夷于南狩，得其大首，不可疾贞
Hunting southward, pressing into the dark, the chief is taken in one stroke. Once it lands, no chasing it over and over; repeated sweeps wear the strength out in open ground.
- 六四Line 4
入于左腹，获明夷之心，于出门庭
Reaching into the left flank, one finds the heart kept in the dark. At the doorway, step back out and go no further in.
- 六五Line 5
箕子之明夷，利贞
Holding your measure inside the dark, neither arguing nor recanting, while the situation loosens on its own.
- 上六Line 6
不明晦，初登于天，后入于地
Raised to the highest point first, then sinking all the way down; as the light dies, leaving matters more than holding on.
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram