Lu / The Wanderer
above: Ch^ en The Arousing, Thunder
below: Li The Clinging, Flame
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.
Overall Meaning
Wanderer, the symbol of wandering
The name Lu denotes people travelling abroad, and is often translated by
'strangers'. As early as the time of King Wan, there was a class of men who
went about from one state to another, pursuing their business as pedlars or
travelling merchants; but in Mencius II, i, chap. 5.3, it is used for
travellers generally, whatever it was that took them out of their own states.
Confucius himself is adduced as a travelling stranger; and in this hexagram
King Wan is supposed to have addressed himself to the class of such men, and
told them how they ought to comport themselves. They ought to cultivate two
qualities: those of humility and integrity (firm correctness). By means of
these they would escape harm, and would make some little progress and
attainment. Their rank was too low to speak of great things in connection
with them. It is interesting to find travellers, strangers in a strange
land, having thus a place in the I.
For the manner in which the component trigrams are supposed to give the
idea that is in Lu, see Appendix II. In Appendix I there is an endeavor to
explain the Thwan by means of the lines and their relation to one another.