Hexagram 56: Lǚ (The Wanderer)

The Judgment

Lu intimates that (in the condition which it denotes) there may be some little attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.

旅：小亨，旅贞吉。

Commentary on the Judgment (Tuan)

'Lu indicates that there may be some small attainment and progress:' - the weak (line) occupies the central place in the outer (trigram), and is obedient to the strong (lines on either side of it). (We have also the attributes of quiet) resting closely attached to intelligence (in the component trigrams). Hence it is said, 'There may be some small attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.' Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken as intimated in Lu!

彖曰：旅，小亨，柔得中乎外而顺乎刚，止而丽乎明，是以小亨，旅贞吉也。旅之时义大矣哉！

The Great Image

(The trigram representing) a mountain and above it that for fire form Lu. The superior man, in accordance with this, exerts his wisdom and caution in the use of punishments and not allowing litigations to continue.

象曰：山上有火，旅；君子以明慎用刑，而不留狱。

The six lines

1. Line 1 (first): The first SIX, divided, shows the stranger mean and meanly occupied. It is thus that he brings on himself (further) calamity.

   'The stranger is mean and meanly occupied:' - his aim is become of the lowest character, and calamity will ensue.

   In plain words: The traveller is petty and fussy: this is how he brings disaster on himself. The first line is weak at the bottom, and on the road it is narrow-minded. The Small Image says its aims run out, bringing disaster.

   初六：旅琐琐，斯其所取灾。 象曰：旅琐琐，志穷灾也。

2. Line 2 (second): The second SIX, divided, shows the stranger, occupying his lodging-house, carrying with him his means of livelihood, and provided with good and trusty servants.

   'He is provided with good and trusty servants:' - he will in the end have nothing of which to complain.

   In plain words: The traveller reaches an inn, carrying his means, and gains a loyal servant. The second line is yielding, central and correct; it is settled away from home and finds help. The Small Image says in the end there is no fault.

   六二：旅即次，怀其资，得童仆贞。 象曰：得童仆贞，终无尤也。

3. Line 3 (third): The third NINE, undivided, shows the stranger, burning his lodging-house, and having lost his servants. However firm and correct he (try to) be, he will be in peril.

   'The stranger burns his lodging-house:' - and he himself also suffers hurt thereby. When, as a stranger, he treats those below him (as the line indicates), the right relation between him and them is lost.

   In plain words: The traveller's inn burns down and he loses his servant; holding on is dangerous. The third line is strong but not central, too harsh away from home, and offends people. The Small Image says the burning of the inn is a harm too, and treating those below harshly as a traveller loses their goodwill.

   九三：旅焚其次，丧其童仆，贞厉。 象曰：旅焚其次，亦以伤矣。以旅与下，其义丧也。

4. Line 4 (fourth): The fourth NINE, undivided, shows the traveller in a resting-place, having (also) the means of livelihood and the axe, (but still saying), 'I am not at ease in my mind.'

   'The stranger is in a resting-place:' - but he has not got his proper position. 'He has the means of livelihood, and the axe:' - but his mind is not at ease.

   In plain words: The traveller finds a place to stay and gains his means and an axe, but his heart is not glad. The axe may be a tool or a weapon for self-defence. The fourth line is yang in a yin place: it has gained something, but it is still living under another's roof. The Small Image says it has not found its proper place, and its heart is not yet glad.

   九四：旅于处，得其资斧，我心不快。 象曰：旅于处，未得位也。得其资斧，心未快也。

5. Line 5 (fifth): The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject shooting a pheasant. He will lose his arrow, but in the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge.

   'In the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge:' - he has reached a high place.

   In plain words: Shooting a pheasant, one arrow is lost; in the end praise and an appointment. The fifth line is yielding and central in the place of honour; on the road it pays a small price and wins great honour. The Small Image says the praise reaches up to the ruler.

   六五：射雉一矢亡，终以誉命。 象曰：终以誉命，上逮也。

6. Line 6 (sixth (top)): The sixth NINE, undivided, suggests the idea of a bird burning its nest. The stranger, (thus represented), first laughs and then cries out. He has lost his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily. There will be evil.

   'Considering that the stranger is here at the very height (of distinction),' with the spirit that possesses him, it is right he (should be emblemed by a bird) burning (its nest). 'He loses his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily:' - to the end he would not listen to (the truth about the course to be pursued).

   In plain words: The bird's nest burns; the traveller first laughs, then wails; he loses his ox without noticing: misfortune. The top line is at the end of the hexagram, proud and aloof, and loses its place of shelter; the ox stands for the virtue of yielding. The Small Image says a traveller who sets himself up high will see his nest burn, and losing the ox unnoticed means in the end no one hears of him.

   上九：鸟焚其巢，旅人先笑后号咷。丧牛于易，凶。 象曰：以旅在上，其义焚也。丧牛于易，终莫之闻也。

Line positions

2 of the six lines stand in their proper place (strong lines in odd places, weak lines in even places).

The second and fifth lines hold the central places of the lower and upper trigrams; both are weak, so they do not correspond.

Of the three pairs of corresponding places (first and fourth, second and fifth, third and top), 1 pair is made of one strong and one weak line.

Strong lines belong in odd places and weak lines in even places; the second and fifth are the central places; first and fourth, second and fifth, third and top correspond, and they "respond" when one is strong and the other weak.

These are structural conventions, not scores of good or bad fortune. Commentators differ: Wang Bi treats the first and top places as beginning and end without fixed yin or yang positions. Read each line with its Small Image and the whole hexagram.

Place in Jing Fang's eight palaces

Jing Fang grouped the 64 hexagrams into eight "palaces" of eight, each headed by a doubled trigram. Changing the lines of the head hexagram one by one from the bottom gives the next five; the last two are the "wandering soul" and "returning soul" hexagrams. The Li palace runs: Lí (head), Lǚ (1st change), Dǐng (2nd change), Wèi Jì (3rd change), Méng (4th change), Huàn (5th change), Sòng (wandering soul), Tóng Rén (returning soul).

A recorded case from Takashima

Lü (Wanderer) to Ding: five years in the life of a coal mine: Touring Kyushu in 1884, Takashima visited a coal mine, and that evening its staff asked his opinion. Saying he knew nothing of mining, he cast and got the second line of Lü, "the traveller reaches an inn with his goods and loyal servants". The mine had money and people and could last; then, line by line, he forecast a fire next year, profits the year after to cover it, a peak of reputation, and, within five years, the danger of "the bird's nest burning".

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English text: James Legge, The Yi King (Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16, 1882), public domain, as transcribed by the Chinese Text Project. Chinese: the received text. Offered for study and reflection, not as prediction.

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