贲 Grace
Upper trigram: Mountain (the mountain) · Lower trigram: Fire (fire)
Beauty and form — polish matters, but keep it on the surface.
Modern interpretation
Presentation, design, and manners matter now — polish them. But remember this hexagram's warning: do not mistake decoration for substance. Small beautifications are favored; structural renovations are not.
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。小利有攸往。
“Pî indicates that there should be free course (in what it denotes). There will be little advantage (however) if it be allowed to advance (and take the lead).” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
贲其趾，舍车而徒。
“The first line, undivided, shows one adorning (the way of) his feet. He can discard a carriage and walk on foot.”
贲其须。
“The second line, divided, shows one adorning his beard.”
贲如，濡如，永贞吉。
“The third line, undivided, shows its subject with the appearance of being adorned and bedewed (with rich favours). But let him ever maintain his firm correctness, and there will be good fortune.”
贲如皤如，白马翰如。匪寇，婚媾。
“The fourth line, divided, shows one looking as if adorned, but only in white. As if (mounted on) a white horse, and furnished with wings, (he seeks union with the subject of the first line), while (the intervening third pursues), not as a robber, but intent on a matrimonial alliance.”
贲于丘园，束帛戋戋，吝，终吉。
“The fifth line, divided, shows its subject adorned by (the occupants of) the heights and gardens. He bears his roll of silk, small and slight. He may appear stingy; but there will be good fortune in the end.”
白贲，无咎。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows one with white as his (only) ornament. There will be no error.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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