Li / The Clinging, Fire
above:Li The Clinging, Flame
below:Li The Clinging, Flame
Li indicates that, (in regard to what it denotes), it will be
advantageous to be firm and correct, and that thus there will
be free course and success. Let (its subject) also nourish (a
docility like that of) the cow, and there will be good
fortune.
Overall Meaning
Clinging, brightness, the symbol of adherence, or of fire and light
Li is the name of the trigram representing fire and light, and the sun as the source of both of these. Its virtue or attribute is brightness, and by a natural metaphor intelligence. But Li has also the meaning of inhering in, or adhering to, being attached to. Both these significations occur in connection with the hexagram, and make it difficult to determine what was the subject of it in the minds of the authors. If we take the whole figure as expressing the subject, we have, as in the treatise on the Thwan, 'a double brightness', a phrase which is understood to denominate the ruler. If we take the two central lines as indicating the subject, we have weakness, dwelling with strength above and below. In either case there are required from the subject a strict adherence to what is correct, and a docile humility. On the second member of the Thwan Khang-tze says: - 'The nature of the ox is docile, and that of the cows is much more so. The subject of the hexagram adhering closely to what is correct, he must be able to act in obedience to it, as docile as a cow, and then there will be good fortune.'