The Clinging
- In Chinese
- 離 lí
- Above
- The Clinging, fire
- Below
- The Clinging, fire
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Mark my castWhat hexagram 30 means
Hexagram 30 is fire over fire, the same trigram twice. Legge gives its name two meanings, brightness and “being attached to”.
The judgment asks for firmness and speaks of success. In Legge's words “it will be advantageous to be firm and correct, and that thus there will be free course and success”.
It then adds a gentler picture. Wilhelm has “Care of the cow brings good fortune.”
Two lines carry good fortune, the second and the fifth, and they are the two broken lines of the figure. The third is the only line whose text says “There will be evil”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
離利貞。亨。畜牝牛吉。
THE CLINGING. Perseverance furthers. It brings success. Care of the cow brings good fortune.
it furthers it is favorablesuccess things flow and come throughgood fortune it goes well
The image
明兩、作《離》。大人以繼明照于四方。
That which is bright rises twice: The image of FIRE. Thus the great man, by perpetuating this brightness, Illumines the four quarters of the world.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment begins with the name. It says “Lî means being attached to” and gives examples from nature. One of them is “The sun and moon have their place in the sky.”
From there it turns to the two trigrams. Their double brightness “adheres to what is correct, and the result is the transforming and perfecting all under the sky”.
The same commentary ties the success named in the judgment to one line. “The weak (second line) occupies the middle and correct position”. On the cow, Legge quotes a commentator who says “The nature of the ox is docile, and that of the cow is much more so.”
The image is brightness repeated. The commentary draws from it a rule for the great man, who “cultivates more and more his brilliant (virtue), and diffuses its brightness over the four quarters (of the land)”. Wilhelm gives the same rule. The great man, “by perpetuating this brightness, Illumines the four quarters of the world”.
Legge does not hide a doubt about the hexagram. The two meanings of its name “make it difficult to determine what was the subject of it in the minds of the authors”.
Whichever way the figure is taken, he finds the same demand. “In either case there are required from the subject a strict adherence to what is correct, and a docile humility.”
The six lines
First line
履錯然敬之，无咎。
The footprints run crisscross. If one is seriously intent, no blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The line is strong and sits at the bottom of the trigram for fire, whose nature Legge gives as “to ascend”. Its subject “will move upwards, and is in danger of doing so coarsely and vehemently”. Legge adds that “the lowest line has hardly entered into the action of the figure”, and this makes him “reverently careful of his movements”.
What keeps him from error is care. The commentary speaks of “reverent attention” given to the confused steps and calls it “the way by which error is avoided”. Wilhelm has “If one is seriously intent, no blame.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 56, The Wanderer
Second line
黃離，元吉。
Yellow light. Supreme good fortune.
supreme good fortune it goes very well, from the root
This broken line holds the centre, and it is the only line whose text speaks of “great good fortune”. Legge explains the colour. Yellow “here symbolises the correct course to which the subject of the line adheres”.
The commentary gives the cause of the good fortune. It is owing to “his holding the course of the due mean”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 14, Great Possession
Third line
日昃之離，不鼓缶而歌，則大耋之嗟，凶。
In the light of the setting sun, Men either beat the pot and sing Or loudly bewail the approach of old age. Misfortune.
misfortune it goes badly
The line is at the top of the lower trigram, “whose light may be considered exhausted”. Legge reads that its subject “should accept the position”, but “he groans and mourns instead”. The note gives the cause. “His strength interferes with the lowly contentment which he should cherish.”
The commentary asks of the declining sun “how can it continue long?” Wilhelm sets two responses side by side, where men “either beat the pot and sing Or loudly bewail the approach of old age”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 21, Biting Through
Fourth line
突如、其來如，焚如，死如，棄如。
Its coming is sudden; It flames up, dies down, is thrown away.
no verdict
The text gives this line no word of fortune, only the picture of a coming that is abrupt. Wilhelm has “It flames up, dies down, is thrown away.”
The commentary adds that “none can bear with him”. Legge calls the manner “unseemly” and “disastrous to himself”. He puts it down to the strength of the line and “its being in an even place”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 22, Grace
Fifth line
出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉。
Tears in floods, sighing and lamenting. Good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
Tears and good fortune stand together in this line. Legge explains the tears by the place of the line, which is weak. “Its position between the strong 4 and 6 fills its subject with anxiety and apprehension”.
He takes the weeping as a good sign, since “such demonstrations are a proof of his inward adherence to right and his humility”. The commentary gives another ground, that the line occupies “the place of a king or a prince”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 13, Fellowship
Sixth line
王用出征，有嘉折首，獲匪其醜，无咎。
The king uses him to march forth and chastise. Then it is best to kill the leaders And take captive the followers. No blame.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The top line is strong, and Legge says it has “the intelligence denoted by its trigrams in the highest degree”. The king sends its subject to punish, and the commentary states the aim, which is “to bring the regions to a correct state”.
The force is measured. He breaks only the chiefs, and Legge sums up that “his generous consideration is equally conspicuous, and he falls into no error”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 55, Abundance
Hexagram 30 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 30 unchanging, what remains is the judgment, which asks for firmness and for the docility of the cow, and the image of a brightness that rises twice and is carried on.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 30 mean?
It stands for brightness and for attachment to what is correct. The judgment says “it will be advantageous to be firm and correct”, and it adds the docility of the cow.
What does hexagram 30 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 30 that is firmness joined with docility, and the brightness the great man carries to “the four quarters of the world”.
What does hexagram 30 changing to 14 mean?
It is hexagram 30 with its second line moving. That line shows its subject “in his place in yellow”, with “great good fortune”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 14.
Is hexagram 30 a good sign?
The judgment speaks of success and good fortune, and it ties them to firmness and docility. Among the lines, the second and the fifth have good fortune, and the third has “evil”.
How does hexagram 30 relate to hexagram 29?
Hexagram 29 comes just before it in the book and is also its opposite. Hexagram 30 is its own inverse.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Lî in James Legge. The Clinging in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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