Darkening of the Light
- In Chinese
- 明夷 míngyí
- Above
- The Receptive, earth
- Below
- The Clinging, fire
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 36 means
Hexagram 36 is fire under the earth. The commentary on the judgment reads the figure as brightness that has gone into the earth, and glosses the name as “Brightness wounded or obscured”.
The judgment gives advice for a hard time. In Legge's words “it will be advantageous to realise the difficulty (of the position), and maintain firm correctness”.
The image says how this is done. In Wilhelm the superior man “veils his light, yet still shines”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
明夷利艱貞。
DARKENING OF THE LIGHT. In adversity It furthers one to be persevering.
it furthers it is favorable
The image
明入地中，《明夷》。君子以莅眾用晦而明。
The light has sunk into the earth: The image of DARKENING OF THE LIGHT. Thus does the superior man live with the great mass: He veils his light, yet still shines.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment reads the two trigrams as two qualities. “The inner (trigram) denotes being accomplished and bright; the outer, being pliant and submissive.” It gives king Wăn as the example, “one who with these qualities was yet involved in great difficulties”.
The same commentary explains what the advice of the judgment asks for. The person concerned “should obscure his brightness”. It adds a second example, a count who in the troubles of his own House “was able (thus) to maintain his aim and mind correct”.
The image is the bright sun gone into the earth. From it the commentary draws a rule for whoever manages others. The superior man “shows his intelligence by keeping it obscured”.
Wilhelm sets the same rule among people. The superior man is said to “live with the great mass”, and there he veils his light.
Legge sees a person in the hexagram. It is “a good and intelligent minister or officer going forward in the service of his country”, under a sovereign he calls “weak and unsympathising”. The hexagram shows how such an officer conducts himself and keeps his purpose.
Legge takes the name from that picture. For him the intelligence of the officer is wounded, which he explains as “injured and repressed”.
Legge also links it to the hexagram that comes before it. He reports an appendix which says that “the advance set forth in 35 is sure to meet with wounding”.
The six lines
First line
明夷于飛，垂其翼。君子于行，三日不食。有攸往，主人有言。
Darkening of the light during flight. He lowers his wings. The superior man does not eat for three days On his wanderings. But he has somewhere to go. The host has occasion to gossip about him.
no verdict
The wound comes at the very beginning, and Legge notes that it “is but slight”. The picture is a bird “flying, but with drooping wings”.
The person sees that he should “desist from the struggle for a time”. Others speak against him where he goes, and in Legge's reading “he holds on to his own good purpose”.
The text has him go three days without eating. Legge explains that he is “so rapt in the thought that he can fast for three days and not think of it”. The commentary says only that “he feels it right not to eat”. Wilhelm puts the fast on the road, “On his wanderings”, and adds “But he has somewhere to go”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 15, Modesty
Second line
明夷、夷于左股，用拯馬、壯吉。
Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh. He gives aid with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
good fortune it goes well
This is the one line with good fortune. The wound is in the left thigh, and Legge says it “may impede his movements, but does not disable him”.
The commentary gives the reason for the good fortune. It is due to “the proper fashion of his acting according to his circumstances”.
The two translations differ on the horse. In Legge the wounded man “saves himself by the strength of a (swift) horse”. In Wilhelm “He gives aid with the strength of a horse”. Legge's note pictures “an officer, obedient to duty and the right”, who “maintains his good purpose”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 11, Peace
Third line
明夷于南狩，得其大首，不可疾貞。
Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south. Their great leader is captured. One must not expect perseverance too soon.
no verdict
The line shows a hunt in the south that takes “the great chief (of the darkness)”. The commentary says that with this aim “a great achievement is accomplished”.
Legge explains the south. The lower trigram is “the emblem of light or brightness”, and the south is where “we turn when we look at the sun in its meridian height”.
Legge keeps the caution that closes the text. The good officer succeeds, “but let him not be over eager to put all things right at once”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 24, Return
Fourth line
入于左腹，獲明夷之心于出門庭。
He penetrates the left side of the belly. One gets at the very heart of the darkening of the light, And leaves gate and courtyard.
no verdict
This line has entered the dark land and still leaves it. The commentary says “he is still able to carry out the idea in his (inner) mind”.
Legge says his translation follows “the view of it commonly accepted”. On that view the subject of the line “evidently escapes from his position of danger with little damage”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 55, Abundance
Fifth line
箕子之明夷，利貞。
Darkening of the light as with Prince Chi. Perseverance furthers.
it furthers it is favorable
The line names the count of Kî as the one who fulfilled the condition of the hexagram. Legge calls him “a historical personage” and the ideal of an officer who stands “near to the sovereign”.
The text adds that “It will be advantageous to be firm and correct”. The commentary says what that firmness kept, since “his brightness could not be (quite) extinguished”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 63, After Completion
Sixth line
不明、晦。初登于天，後入于地。
Not light but darkness. First he climbed up to heaven, Then he plunged into the depths of the earth.
no verdict
The top line is the ruler and not the officer. Legge reads it as “the fate of the ruler, who opposes himself to the officer who would do him good and intelligent service”.
The commentary judges him plainly, “he has failed to fulfil the model (of a ruler)”. Legge gives the picture behind the verse. The ruler could have been as the sun in the sky, and instead “he is as the sun hidden below the earth”.
The text shows “no light, but (only) obscurity”. The commentary says what was lost, because “he might have enlightened the four quarters of the kingdom”. Legge adds “I can well believe that the writer had the last king of Shang in his mind”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 22, Grace
Hexagram 36 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 36 unchanging, what remains is the advice of the judgment, to see the difficulty and stay firm, and the image of a person who keeps his intelligence hidden while he lives among others.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 36 mean?
It describes brightness that is wounded or hidden in a hard time, and how to go through it. The judgment advises “to realise the difficulty (of the position), and maintain firm correctness”.
What does hexagram 36 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 36 that is the advice to stay firm in difficulty, and the image of a light that is veiled and “still shines”.
What does hexagram 36 changing to 11 mean?
It is hexagram 36 with its second line moving. That line shows a wound in the left thigh and a rescue “by the strength of a (swift) horse”, and it is the one line with good fortune. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 11.
What does hexagram 36 changing to 15 mean?
It is hexagram 36 with its first line moving. That line shows a bird “flying, but with drooping wings”, and a person who steps back from the struggle for a time. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 15.
Who is the count of Kî in hexagram 36?
He is the figure named in the fifth line. Legge calls him “a historical personage”, and the commentary on the judgment says that amid the difficulties of his House he “was able (thus) to maintain his aim and mind correct”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Ming Î in James Legge. Darkening of the Light in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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