Hexagram 55: Feng

Thunder over Fire · 雷火丰 · Tendency: Inauspicious

Structure

• Number: 55 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷶
• Upper trigram: Zhen (Thunder)
• Lower trigram: Li (Fire)
• Lines: yang yin yang yang yin yin (bottom to top)

The statement

亨，王假之。勿忧，宜日中。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates great momentum and many opportunities, suitable for seizing the peak period to accomplish key tasks. When thriving, it is easiest to overlook risks. Remember that the peak will not last forever; it is more important to plan an exit and safeguard achievements in advance.

A Buddhist reading

Abundance is where blindness most easily grows. Zhixu counts a full household, a broad territory, and in contemplative terms the support given by meditative practice, all as Feng (Abundance). Fullness gives cause for worry, but empty worry helps nothing: the sun at noon must decline, and heaven and earth themselves cannot refuse the turning of time. What matters is to use the brightness while it lasts to illuminate the world. Brightness without movement, or movement without brightness, accomplishes nothing. The top line curtains the house and hides from the light, going from dark into darker, which is the self blinding that abundance most invites.

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: Hexagram 54: Gui Mei
• Next / Inverted: Hexagram 56: Lvthe whole figure turned upside down
• Opposite: Hexagram 59: Huanevery line changed to its opposite
• 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.