I Ching Li Meaning: Hexagram 30 Explained

Draw Li 離 and students often first misread the character. Li, leave. Then they start reading: breakup, resign, things to throw away.

In class I almost always change this first. 離者，麗也. Li is attaching. Fire has to attach to fuel to shine; eyes have to attach to a thing to see; culture has to attach to a correct place to transform the world. This hexagram is fire, brightness, the eye, a net. Luck is not in “walking away.” It is attaching to the right place. Attach wrong: sudden as coming, burning as, dying as, discarded as.

The Clinging / Fire: brightness above and below, attach to the correct

The Clinging / Fire. Li above and Li below. The middle is yin, the outer yang: like fire’s hollow, also like an eye. Doubled brightness, two suns stacked. Brightness has to be bright again, so the Xiang says the great person continues brightness to shine on the four quarters: today’s brightness, tomorrow still has to connect. Shining once is not enough.

Above and below both Li, no reverse problem, but people often read Li as Fire over Heaven, Da You 大有, or Fire over Water, Wei Ji 未濟. Da You is fire in heaven, possessing very large. Li is fire stacked on fire: the point is attaching, brightness, the eyes. Jia Ren 家人 is Wind over Fire, Xun above, Li below, Li inside as culture. Ask about home, Jia Ren is more on topic. Ask where this mass of fire attaches, whom it shines for: Li is more fundamental.

The Xugua says: 「陷必有所麗，故受之以離。離者，麗也。」 After sinking there must be something to cling to; therefore Li follows. Li is clinging. Before it is Kan 坎. Sunk, you must have something to attach to. A person in a pit has to grab a piece that can attach: a correctness, a person, a brightness. So Li is not light falling from the sky. Often after climbing out of Kan, you have to choose where to attach. Attach right, it opens; attach wrong, it burns.

The judgment: 「離，利貞，亨。畜牝牛，吉。」 Beneficial to be correct: attaching should be correct. It opens. Raise a cow, luck. A cow is a female ox: yielding, able to nourish, able to carry. Fire is most hard, most restless: use the yielding to raise it. Draw Li and still use Qian 乾’s flying-dragon set to raise this fire: fire will burn yourself. Raise a cow is not telling you to raise cattle. This brightness has to rely on yielding to last.

The Tuan says: 「離，麗也。日月麗乎天，百穀草木麗乎土。重明以麗乎正，乃化成天下。柔麗乎中正，故亨。是以畜牝牛吉也。」 Li is clinging. Sun and moon cling to Heaven; the hundred grains and plants cling to soil. Without attaching, brightness is also empty. Doubled brightness still has to cling to the correct. Incorrect brightness is a spotlight on the wrong person.

Career and wealth: first ask where you attach

Ask about career and draw Li: overall there is light — being seen, taking the stage, going public, related to culture, documents, eyes, fire, electricity, the net. You can shine. After shining, what is asked is attaching to which company, which boss, which proper work. Attach right: six in the second, yellow Li, great luck. Yellow is the center color; Li is brightness; attaching centered and correct: best. Attach wrong: nine in the fourth’s sudden fire, burned then discarded.

The most expensive tuition then is “I want to be brighter.” Nine in the third, Li of the declining sun: the sun past noon. Still not beating a jar and singing, then the sigh of great age, unlucky. The sun past midheaven: know this is afternoon, know how to sing, how to take it in — not treat it as still morning. Draw nine in the third: career can see light, but overwork, loving to compare, not accepting fullness at the peak: becomes that sigh of old age. Public performance can be done; adding stakes, another round, stacking another spotlight: does not fit the hexagram.

For wealth, Li is like fire: comes bright, cannot keep shape. Income that relies on eye, name, being seen, fits better than dark earth-wealth. Fire without fuel goes out. Fuel is that yielding accumulation like a cow: client relations, principal, the body, a process still willing to do fine. Only shine, not raise: the books can look very good; one burning-as and empty. Investment and Li: watch sudden topics, sudden news. Nine in the fourth, sudden as coming, burning as, dying as, discarded as: comes fierce, burns, dies, throws away. This wealth, do not catch with the hand.

Initial nine, treading mixed, respect it, no blame. Just starting, steps mixed; respect, then no blame. New work, new exposure, a new system: draw the initial nine, allow being in a fluster, do not allow slighting. Respect is treating fire as fire, not as a toy.

Love: attach, do not burn

Ask about love and draw Li: there is light in the relationship, and eyes. Seeing each other, being seen. It can be very bright: public, marrying, introducing the other person to the world. It can also be very scorching: staring, checking, comparing, treating the other person as your fuel. Li is clinging, not occupying. Attach to correct treatment, it opens. Attach to the other person’s fear, it will burn.

If you are already together, six in the second’s yellow Li is steadiest: centered, correct, not overly bright. Six in the fifth, tears pouring, grief and sighing, luck. Cry, worry, sigh: luck instead. Yielding in the honored place, knowing danger, then able to be correct. In love draw six in the fifth: do not dislike the other person’s many tears, do not dislike your own softness. In danger still able to cry out: better than grinding until burned dry. Luck is in true feeling, not in dignity.

Nine in the third used in love is past noon. Heat passed; you have to know how to live the days, beat a jar and sing. Still wanting the heat-of-love file: you will sigh. Nine in the fourth is fire bursting: sudden anger, sudden catching in the act, a sudden breakup message. Coming as, burning as; afterward dying as, discarded as. Draw nine in the fourth: cool first. Fire’s first move should not be striking back.

If you are single and draw Li, a connection relates to seeing: an occasion, appearance, a public field. You have to appear, be seen by correct eyes. Wait for luck, you will not wait for fire. Also raise a cow: leave the yielding; do not, once seen, burn into nine in the fourth. Smashing with more exposure is like pushing the sun further up; the declining sun will come faster.

Workplace people and Li: documents, decks, name, who is seen: all magnified. Continue brightness to shine on the four quarters: connecting brightness on, not twisting others’ lamps off. The upper nine, the king uses it to go on campaign, there is praise, breaking the head, capturing not the followers, no blame: use brightness to cut, break the head, do not kill the small together. Handling small people, handling a wrong attaching: be accurate, do not expand the strike. In Li’s culture there is campaigning, but campaigning is not burning a city.

Start with respect, sing when past noon, stop bursting fire first

In class I pick five lines, treating Li as whether you can attach, take it in, burn.

Initial nine: 履錯然，敬之無咎. Steps mixed. Respect, no blame. Draw this line: new brightness can be received; the attitude should be respect. Slighting, showing off, promising before seeing clearly: mixed will become truly wrong.

Six in the second: 黃離，元吉. Yellow center, attaching correctly. Great luck. Draw this line: almost Li’s cleanest luck. Put the place in the center, give light to the matter that should have it, do not go aside. Career, love, the eyes: all beneficial to hold this center.

Nine in the third: 日昃之離，不鼓缶而歌，則大耋之嗟，凶. The sun declining west. Not beating a jar and singing, then the sigh of great age, unlucky. Draw this line: fullness has passed. Able to take it in, live the present days: that is song. Still comparing with morning, with others’ midheaven: that is sighing. In health also common: overwork, heat, eyes, the heart — declining sun still used as noon.

Nine in the fourth: 突如其來如，焚如，死如，棄如. Comes suddenly, burns, dies, discarded. Yang already past the center, also not correct. Draw this line: first treat as a fire alarm. A person, news, a market, anger, coming too fast: do not catch with the hand. Catch, and the later three as will queue up.

Six in the fifth: 出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉. Tears like rain, grief and sighing, luck. The yielding clinging to the center, able to worry, therefore able to be correct. Draw this line: allow crying, showing weakness, speaking the danger out. Hard-pretending to be the sun: not lucky. Luck is in true, not in bright.

The upper nine I often add: the king uses it to go on campaign, there is praise. Break the head, capture not the followers, no blame. Cut what should be cut; remove the leader; do not hunt the followers to the end. Handling a wrong game, a wrong person: accurate is enough. Li’s brightness is used to shine, not to burn a whole stretch into white ground.

So when people say “I drew Li, very bright, very lucky,” ask again: attach where? Past noon? Is this fire being raised by a cow? Bright and not taking it in: one line apart is sighing, another is burning.

In class I have students do three things for Li

First, write what you are now attaching to. A company, a person, an idea, a screen. Attach correctly or not: first judge yourself. Cannot judge, six in the second has not arrived.

Second, see which stretch the sun is in. Initial nine mixed, six in the second midheaven, nine in the third declining, nine in the fourth sudden fire. Which stretch you stand in, the move is completely different. Respect, hold, sing, stop: four words for four stretches.

Third, find your cow. Who, what habit, can raise this fire yielding. Sleep, a person willing to advise you, a basic skill that need not see light. Cannot write a cow, and fire will find fuel itself; fuel is often you.

After Kan is Li. The previous: I Ching Kan Meaning | Hexagram 29 How to Read: The Abysmal, Walking in Repeated Danger. Sunk, you have to have something to attach to; after attaching you still have to know how to use the firm and strong. Compare I Ching Qian Meaning | Hexagram 1 How to Read: Hidden Dragon to Arrogant Dragon. Qian is you yourself having to fly; Li is fire having to attach to the correct to shine. Ask about culture and division of labor at home: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read. Jia Ren has Li in it; Li is not necessarily at home.

I Ching Li FAQ

Does Li mean breakup, resigning, leaving?

The character is not that meaning. Li is clinging. You can ask about change, but the original sense is attaching, brightness. Truly to decide “should I go,” look whether the place you attach is correct, whether fire is past noon — not this character’s modern Chinese.

Raise a cow: is it telling women to be yielding, people to endure?

A cow is an image: yielding can raise fire. A male manager who draws Li still has to raise this yielding: listen, carry, keep fire in the correct. Map it onto gender and you kill the hexagram. Fire itself is already hard enough. Harder still: burning as.

I asked about health and drew Li. How do I read it?

Fire, eyes, the heart, blood heat, inflammation, skin, sight, overwork. Nine in the third’s declining sun most advises taking it in. Not every Li is a great illness. It reminds you where this fire is burning. Eyes and sleep: in class I almost always ask.

Sudden as coming: is there definitely disaster?

Nine in the fourth, the image of bursting fire is heavy. Disaster can be people, fire, a piece of news that burns you dry. Not necessarily answering on a house. The way to handle is not using sudden to catch sudden. Respect, stop, cool. Able to pass to six in the fifth’s able to cry, able to worry: luckier instead.

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