明夷 Darkening of the Light
Upper trigram: Earth (the earth) · Lower trigram: Fire (fire)
Hide your brilliance — the environment is hostile to light.
Modern interpretation
Conceal your intelligence and keep a low profile while outer darkness passes. Endure with inner clarity intact: do what must be done, say less than you know, and protect the flame. Survival now is strategy, not surrender.
The Judgment · 卦辞
利艰贞。
“Ming Î indicates that (in the circumstances which it denotes) it will be advantageous to realise the difficulty (of the position), and maintain firm correctness.” — 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.
明夷，于飞垂其翼。君子于行，三日不食。有攸往，主人有言。
“The first line, undivided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Î, flying, but with drooping wings. When the superior man (is revolving) his going away, he may be for three days without eating. Wherever he goes, the people there may speak (derisively of him).”
明夷夷于左股，用拯马壮，吉。
“The second line, divided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Î, wounded in the left thigh. He saves himself by the strength of a (swift) horse ; and is fortunate.”
明夷于南狩，得其大首，不可疾贞。
“The third line, undivided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Î, hunting in the south, and taking the great chief (of the darkness). He should not be eager to make (all) correct (at once).”
入于左腹，获明夷之心，于出门庭。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject (just) entered into the left side of the belly (of the dark land). (But) he is able to carry out the mind appropriate (in the condition indicated by) Ming Î, quitting the gate and courtyard (of the lord of darkness).”
箕子之明夷，利贞。
“The fifth line, divided, shows how the count of Kî fulfilled the condition indicated by Ming Î. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.”
不明，晦，初登于天，后入于地。
“The sixth line, divided, shows the case where there is no light, but (only) obscurity. (Its subject) had at first ascended to (the top of) the sky; his future shall be to go into the earth.”
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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