Hexagram 22: Bi

Mountain over Fire · 山火贲

Structure

• Number: 22 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷕
• Upper trigram: Gen (Mountain)
• Lower trigram: Li (Fire)
• Lines: yang yin yang yin yin yang (bottom to top)

The statement

亨。小利有攸往。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram is related to packaging, image, and expression. Suitable for organizing appearance, optimizing presentation, and making things more orderly. Note that decoration is only auxiliary; what truly supports the outcome is content and strength. Don't let surface beauty cover practical problems.

A Buddhist reading

Bi (Adornment) is about ornament, yet Ouyi Zhixu finds in it an argument against ornamenting. Every line, he notes, adorns itself with its own plain color, and the sequence ends in white adornment, echoing the line from the Odes that plainness is what makes the pattern shine. The truest color under heaven turns out to be white. Pattern and substance complete each other the way stillness and wisdom support each other, and this belongs to the nature rather than being manufactured. Clarifying affairs while refusing to pass sentence he reads as knowing which things are true and which are false without rushing to rule on them and breed preference and aversion. Adornment at its height leaves no trace at all.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous / Inverted: Hexagram 21: Shi Kethe whole figure turned upside down
• Next: Hexagram 23: Bo
• Opposite: Hexagram 47: Kunevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 40: Xielines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.