Hexagram 30: Li

Fire over Fire · 离为火 · Tendency: Auspicious

Structure

• Number: 30 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷝
• Upper trigram: Li (Fire)
• Lower trigram: Li (Fire)
• Lines: yang yin yang yang yin yang (bottom to top)

The statement

利贞。亨。畜牝牛吉。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates brightness, display, and dependent relationships. It is suitable for learning, spreading information, public expression, and leveraging platforms to shine. Remember that fire needs fuel—do not rely solely on enthusiasm; when depending on others, maintain your own judgment.

A Buddhist reading

Li (Clinging) is about depending on something in order to appear. Ouyi Zhixu starts from fire: fire has no self of its own and becomes visible only by clinging to wood, and human wisdom is the same, standing only when it rests on the right path. Raising a cow is auspicious because the cow is gentle, strong, and able to bear a calf, an image of right concentration giving birth to subtle wisdom. Light arises in dependence on stillness, and stillness in turn rests on principle. So he criticizes those who overwork their cleverness with no stillness beneath it, swinging between elation and grief, since a dry wisdom unwatered by concentration cannot hold itself up. The fifth line, weeping and anxious, is the one called auspicious, because the learning of the sages has always felt like that.

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 / Opposite: Hexagram 29: Kanevery line changed to its opposite
• Next: Hexagram 31: Xian
• Nuclear: Hexagram 28: Da Guolines 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.