I Ching Bi (Grace) Meaning: Hexagram 22

Draw Bi (Grace) 賁 and students often split in two camps. One feels: time to dress, packaging, renovation, a wedding, an image project. One feels: empty, do not trust appearance.

Each camp is half right. Bi (Grace) is ornament. Things cannot only close carelessly; after closing there must be culture, ritual, a layer that lets people look at it smoothly. Ornament to the end, and the upper nine writes white Bi (Grace), no blame. White is plain. You can ornament. In the end you return to the plain. Only packaging left, and this hexagram will not help you.

First get the image right. Bi (Grace) is Mountain over Fire, Grace. Gen 艮 above, Li 離 below. Mountain above, Fire below. Fire under the mountain, fire lighting the mountain: what is bright is the grain, so it is called ornament. It is not Fire over Mountain, Lü (Wanderer) 旅. The Wanderer is Li above, Gen below, fire on the mountain: sojourning, not settled. Bi (Grace) is fire under the mountain: culture and stopping, trimming appearance to just right. Reverse above and below and you misread “should ornament” as “should take the road.”

Careless closing is not enough, so there is Bi (Grace)

The Xugua says: 「物不可以苟合而已，故受之以賁。賁者，飾也。」 Things cannot only close carelessly; therefore Bi (Grace) follows. Bi (Grace) is ornament. Before it is Shi He 噬嗑. Bitten through, closed: you cannot just make do. After closing, ornament: ritual, culture, ceremony, letting this closing look acknowledged. Careless closing only wants the stuck thing gone. Bi (Grace) is letting closing become a life people live.

This is practical for a reading. People who draw Bi (Grace), common scenes: a wedding to hold, a renovation, a brand, changing image, taking a relationship just talked together and making it look proper in public. The hexagram allows you to ornament. It does not allow you, after ornamenting, to think that is the substance. Substance is in the fire; stopping is in the mountain. Culture and stopping: culture stops when it reaches the mountain.

The Tuan says: 「賁，亨。柔來而文剛，故亨。分剛上而文柔，故小利有攸往。天文也。文明以止，人文也。觀乎天文，以察時變；觀乎人文，以化成天下。」 The yielding comes and ornaments the firm, therefore it opens. The firm goes up and ornaments the yielding, therefore only small benefit in going. Heaven’s pattern is nature’s grain; human culture is people’s ritual. Completing by transforming is letting people become better, not letting people look dazzled.

The Xiang says: 「山下有火，賁。君子以明庶政，無敢折獄。」 Fire under the mountain, Bi (Grace). The superior person makes the many affairs clear, and dares not decide a jail case. This line has to be read against Shi He. Shi He is beneficial to use jail; Bi (Grace) dares not decide a jail case. When ornamenting, do not take it to judge a lawsuit. Packaging can be used to hold a wedding, renovate a house, write a manual. It cannot be used to judge right and wrong. Right and wrong should be clear, not cultured. In class I often say: a deck can look good; a judgment cannot only look good.

The judgment: 「賁，亨。小利有攸往。」 It opens: with culture it opens. Going forward, only small benefit. Bi (Grace) is not a hexagram of opening territory. It is ornamenting a closing you already have. Want to go far on packaging: the judgment only gives you small benefit.

Career and wealth: image can be done; the proper work cannot be only skin

Ask about career and draw Bi (Grace): overall good for trimming edges, doing design, putting the outward face in order, writing a product explanation clearly, making a shop, site, dress, card have ritual. Fire under the mountain: light shines near, you can see the grain, not the whole world. So Bi (Grace) is beneficial for detail, quality, letting people feel proper — not beneficial for making the plate large on one advertisement.

For wealth, Bi (Grace) is more like “money that comes because it looks proper”: design fees, wedding-related, renovation, brand, gifts, culture. It comes correctly, mostly not a windfall. Small benefit in going. Make Bi (Grace) into a windfall and it easily slides to fake: copied brands, invented credentials, the site very bright, behind it the Wanderer. Initial nine, ornament the toes, give up the cart and walk. Ornament your own feet well; rather walk than sit a cart you should not sit. Draw the initial nine: at work rather walk a little plain, than for face take a cart that does not match the name. That cart looks like Bi (Grace); walking it is blame.

Six in the fifth, ornament in the hill garden, bundled silk scant, cause for regret, luck in the end. Ornament in the hill garden, bundled silk very little, looks stingy, luck in the end. The hill garden is home, a garden, the inner. Silk is ritual; scant is little. Draw six in the fifth: a wedding can be simple, renovation practical, gifts thin and true. Outside will think you small; the hexagram says luck in the end. Conversely, emptying the garden to swap for a very Bi (Grace) banquet: walking against six in the fifth.

Upper nine, white Bi (Grace), no blame. Ornament to the extreme, return to white. Draw the upper nine: the image project should be taken in; the product should show its base material; people should come and go as they originally are. White is not without culture. It is culture until you no longer need to add color. This is Bi (Grace)’s true height.

Love and people: a wedding can be held; do not hold it only for the camera

Ask about love and draw Bi (Grace): the relationship needs ornament — the rite of meeting parents, an engagement ceremony, turning love from a careless close into a form that can be seen. After Shi He bites the obstruction through, Bi (Grace) comes to decorate closing into marriage, into public, into polite coming and going. Good for holding a wedding, dressing carefully to see people, speaking becomingly.

Not good if only packaging is left. Nine in the third, ornamented as if soaked, lasting correctness lucky. Ornamented very moist, very thick: keep correct lastingly, then luck. In love, heavy makeup, heavy sweetness, heavy ceremony: fine, but correctness has to last. Thick then change: soaked becomes wet, stuck, and unclear instead.

Six in the fourth, ornamented as if white, a white horse as if flying, not a robber, a marriage alliance. Ornamented into a stretch of white, a white horse as if taking off: not coming to grab, coming to complete a marriage. Draw six in the fourth: appearance may make people misunderstand — the other person coming fiercely, the scene sudden, looking like a robber. Do not first judge with Shi He’s jail. It may be a marriage alliance, closing, ritual. Of course, if it truly is a robber, do not shut the eyes because of Bi (Grace). White as if: in the white you have to be able to see a person. Cannot see a person, it is not Bi (Grace). It is a cover.

If you are single and draw Bi (Grace), a connection often comes from a ritual occasion: a wedding banquet, an exhibition, a place with dress, ceremony. You yourself also need one culture. One culture is not a brand. It is neatness, respect. Give up the cart and walk: rather walk there yourself than borrow a fake identity onto a cart. Fake Bi (Grace) breaks when it sees light.

Workplace people and Bi (Grace): speech can have culture, attitude ritual. Ritual is not hypocrisy. Hypocrisy is no firmness, only ornament. The yielding comes and ornaments the firm: underneath there has to be the firm — substance, a bottom line. Culture without the firm is oil.

Lines: the depth of ornament differs

Bi (Grace) is not the more splendid the better. Where you ornament, what color: luck and unluck differ.

Initial nine: 賁其趾，舍車而徒. Ornament your own toes, give up the cart, walk. Draw the initial nine: start ornamenting from your own pace. Do not from the start borrow a cart, momentum, someone else’s scene. The toes are the lowest; first walk the way of walking correctly. Give up the cart and walk: looks like a loss, actually no shame.

Nine in the third: 賁如濡如，永貞吉. Ornamented as if moist; keep correct lastingly, luck. Nine in the third, firm occupying the firm place: culture easily goes too thick. Draw this line: image, love, renovation can all be done a little full, but correctness has to stay. Full and not correct: soaked becomes drowning. Lasting correctness is this line’s life-saving word.

Six in the fourth: 賁如皤如，白馬翰如，匪寇婚媾. Ornamented white, a white horse flying: not a robber, a marriage match. Draw six in the fourth: the scene may be both plain and urgent. First distinguish robber and marriage. The way to distinguish is whether in the white there is ritual: a go-between, words, a name that can be checked — leans marriage; only charging, only seizing — leans robber. Do not open all because it looks good, and do not shut all because it is sudden.

Six in the fifth: 賁于丘園，束帛戔戔，吝，終吉. Ornament in the hill garden, bundled silk scant, cause for regret, luck in the end. Draw six in the fifth: use money and culture on the inner: home, garden, substance, a few true friends. Outside will feel you are not Bi (Grace) enough; the end is lucky instead. This line most advises: wedding, renovation, brand — rather thrifty outside, thick inside.

Upper nine: 白賁，無咎. White ornament, no blame. The highest of ornament is the plain. Draw the upper nine: take off extra color. A person, a product, a room, a draft: leave white, and you get through instead. Still want to add a layer of gold: you leave Bi (Grace) and enter fullness. Fullness is not what this hexagram wants.

Six in the second, ornament the beard: in class I mention it. Ornament has to attach to something real, like a beard attached to a face. No face, only beard: fake Bi (Grace). First have the firm, then culture.

In class, how to ornament so it holds

Draw Bi (Grace) and I have students do three concrete things.

First, name the closing you are ornamenting. No closing, go ornament: empty renovation. Shi He not finished, an obstruction still in the mouth, first choosing a banquet venue: the venue will become a courtroom. Have closing, then ornament.

Second, ornament to the hill garden; do not ornament until the silk is used up. Leave half the budget for living. Leave a cut of image for white. Leave blank in a deck for people to ask. Scant looks like cause for regret; luck in the end is written after.

Third, ask yourself whether you can white-Bi (Grace). Take off the filter, the title, the one-time scene: what is left. If it remains, this hexagram was used right. If it does not remain, the present Bi (Grace) is a borrowed cart; the initial nine already advised you to get off and walk.

This hexagram’s homework is enough: you can ornament; in the end return to white Bi (Grace). Renovation, image, a wedding: fine. Do not only have packaging left. Fire under the mountain: fire is brightness, mountain is stopping. Bright, stop where you should stop.

Compare: I Ching Shi He Meaning | Hexagram 21 How to Read: Biting Through, Judgment and Closing. Close first, bite first, then ornament. Ornament needs ritual, a look of home: Jia Ren 家人 is useful: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read. After having, do not fill. Qian (Modesty) 謙 and white Bi (Grace) are the same kind of taking in: I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate.

I Ching Bi (Grace) FAQ

Is Bi (Grace) empty, not suited to great matters?

The stretch of a great matter that needs ritual: suited. A wedding, going public, a brand, repairing then setting out: all suited. Needing to decide a jail case, open territory, force through in the dark: not suited to take Bi (Grace) as the main hexagram. Small benefit in going reminds you this hexagram cannot walk a very far campaign. It can walk that near layer of culture.

I asked about renovation, teeth, buying a dress, and drew Bi (Grace). Can I do it?

The topic fits very well. Fire under the mountain is repairing the grain you can see. Six in the fifth, bundled silk scant: do not fill the budget. Upper nine, white Bi (Grace): do not make the style oily. You can do it. Doing it to the plain fits the hexagram better than doing it to gold.

I asked about love and drew Bi (Grace); the other person dresses well, the occasion is beautiful. Can I rely on it?

See whether in the white there is the firm. Substance, ritual, a hill garden: Bi (Grace) is a plus. Only soaked, no lasting correctness: good looks will fade. Six in the fourth has to distinguish robber and marriage. A fierce scene is not necessarily bad; you definitely have to see a name, not only a white horse.

Why does Bi (Grace) dare not decide a jail case, while Shi He is beneficial to use jail?

Because the two hexagrams’ tools differ. Shi He is thunder and lightning: make punishment clear. Bi (Grace) is ornament: take it to judge a case and right and wrong will be covered by diction. Original Bi (Grace), changing Shi He: often face talks will not close, and finally you have to get real. Then take the color off, bite the obstruction through: that is the order.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.