The Wanderer
- In Chinese
- 旅 lǚ
- Above
- The Clinging, fire
- Below
- Keeping Still, mountain
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 56 means
Hexagram 56 is fire above a mountain. Its name, in Legge's words, “denotes people travelling abroad”, and it speaks to the stranger who is away from his own state.
The judgment is modest. Legge has “there may be some little attainment and progress”, and he ties good fortune to a traveller who is “firm and correct as he ought to be”.
Legge names what such a person has to cultivate. There are two qualities, “those of humility and integrity (firm correctness)”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
旅小亨。旅貞吉。
THE WANDERER. Success through smallness. Perseverance brings good fortune To the wanderer.
success things flow and come throughgood fortune it goes well
The image
山上有火，《旅》。君子以明慎用刑而不留獄。
Fire on the mountain: The image of THE WANDERER. Thus the superior man Is clear-minded and cautious In imposing penalties, And protracts no lawsuits.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment explains the small success from the lines. In the upper trigram “the weak (line) occupies the central place in the outer (trigram), and is obedient to the strong (lines on either side of it)”.
The same commentary closes with praise for the moment itself. It says “Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken as intimated in Lü!”
The image is fire on a mountain. From it the commentary draws a rule about punishment and lawsuits. The superior man “exerts his wisdom and caution in the use of punishments and not allowing litigations to continue”.
Wilhelm gives the same rule in shorter lines. The superior man “Is clear-minded and cautious In imposing penalties, And protracts no lawsuits”.
Legge places the name in history. From early times there was “a class of men who went about from one state to another, pursuing their business as pedlars or travelling merchants”.
He also gives the reason the judgment speaks only of small things. Of these travellers he writes that “Their rank was too low to speak of great things in connexion with them”.
The six lines
First line
旅瑣瑣斯，其所取災。
If the wanderer busies himself with trivial things, He draws down misfortune upon himself.
no verdict
The traveller starts badly. Legge notes that the line is “weak, in an odd place, and at the very bottom or commencement of the hexagram”, and the commentary says “his aim is become of the lowest character”. Wilhelm has him busy with “trivial things”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 30, The Clinging
Second line
旅即次，懷其資，得童僕貞。
The wanderer comes to an inn. He has his property with him. He wins the steadfastness of a young servant.
no verdict
Here the traveller has a lodging, his means and his servants. Legge reads him as “provided with everything he can require”, and though the text names no outcome he says “we must understand it as being good”. The commentary agrees that “he will in the end have nothing of which to complain”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 50, The Cauldron
Third line
旅焚其次，喪其童僕貞，厲。
The wanderer’s inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger.
danger there is danger
The lodging burns and the servants are lost, and the text speaks of peril. Legge explains that the strength of this line “may be expected to appear as violence”. The commentary adds that “he himself also suffers hurt thereby”. Legge doubts the closing words of the line and writes “It seems unreasonable to suppose, as in the conclusion, that one so described could be in any way correct”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 35, Progress
Fourth line
旅于處，得其資斧，我心不快。
The wanderer rests in a shelter. He obtains his property and an ax. My heart is not glad.
no verdict
The traveller has a resting-place, means and an axe, and still says “I am not at ease in my mind”. The commentary gives the reason, which is that “he has not got his proper position”. Legge reads the axe as something “which may be available for defence”. He also passes on a remark from earlier editors that “the mention of an axe makes us think of caution as a quality desirable in a traveller”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 52, Keeping Still
Fifth line
射雉一矢亡，終以譽命。
He shoots a pheasant. It drops with the first arrow. In the end this brings both praise and office.
no verdict
The traveller shoots a pheasant. In Legge he loses his arrow and in Wilhelm the bird drops “with the first arrow”, but both translations end in praise and a post. Legge explains the bird, since for an officer abroad “his gift of introduction at any feudal court was a pheasant”. He reads the ending as a traveller who is “praised by his attached friends, and exalted to a place of dignity by the ruler to whom he is acceptable”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 33, Retreat
Sixth line
鳥焚其巢，旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易，凶。
The bird’s nest burns up. The wanderer laughs at first, Then must needs lament and weep. Through carelessness he loses his cow. Misfortune.
misfortune it goes badly
This is the only line whose text ends in evil, which Wilhelm gives as “Misfortune”. Legge reads its subject as “arrogant and violent; the opposite of what a traveller should be”. He does not hide his doubt about the picture and asks “What bird ever burned its nest?”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 62, Small Exceeding
Hexagram 56 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 56 unchanging, what remains is the small success of the judgment, with good fortune for the traveller who stays firm and correct, and the image that asks for caution in punishing and for lawsuits that are not drawn out.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 56 mean?
It describes the traveller, a stranger outside his own state, for whom success is small. The judgment says “there may be some little attainment and progress”, and it gives good fortune to the one who stays firm and correct.
What does hexagram 56 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 56 that is small success, good fortune for the steady traveller, and caution in the use of punishments.
What does hexagram 56 changing to 52 mean?
It is hexagram 56 with its fourth line moving. That line shows the traveller in a resting-place with his means and an axe, still saying “I am not at ease in my mind”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 52.
What does hexagram 56 changing to 62 mean?
It is hexagram 56 with its top line moving. That line is the bird burning its nest, where the stranger “first laughs and then cries out”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 62.
Is hexagram 56 a good or a bad sign?
The judgment holds both small success and good fortune, on the condition that the traveller is firm and correct. Among the lines, the third is in peril and the top one ends in evil. Legge reads the second as good though “the auspice is not mentioned”, and the fifth ends in “praise and a (high) charge”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Lü in James Legge. The Wanderer in Wilhelm and Baynes.
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castTo find the hexagram for you, cast the three coins.
Cast the coins