明夷
míng yí

36. Darkening of the Light

䷣
Above
坤 kūn
The Receptive, Earth
Below
離 lí
The Clinging, Fire

Here the sun has sunk under the earth and is there­fore dark­ened. The name of the hexa­gram means lit­er­al­ly “wound­ing of the bright”; hence the in­di­vid­ual lines con­tain fre­quent ref­er­ences to wound­ing. The sit­u­a­tion is the exact op­po­site of that in the fore­go­ing hexa­gram. In the lat­ter a wise man at the head of af­fairs has able helpers, and in com­pa­ny with them makes progress; here a man of dark na­ture is in a po­si­tion of au­thor­i­ty and brings harm to the wise and able man.

The Judgement

Darkening of the light. In adversity
It furthers one to be persevering.

One must not un­re­sist­ing­ly let him­self be swept along by un­fa­vor­able cir­cum­stances, nor per­mit his stead­fast­ness to be shak­en. He can avoid this by main­tain­ing his inner light, while re­main­ing out­ward­ly yield­ing and tractable. With this at­ti­tude he can over­come even the great­est ad­ver­si­ties.

In some sit­u­a­tions in­deed a man must hide his light, in order to make his will pre­vail in spite of dif­fi­cul­ties in his im­me­di­ate en­vi­ron­ment. Per­se­ver­ance must dwell in in­most con­scious­ness and should not be dis­cernible from with­out. Only thus is a man able to main­tain his will in the face of dif­fi­cul­ties.

The Image

The light has sunk into the earth:
The image of darkening of the light.
Thus does the superior man live with the great mass:
He veils his light, yet still shines.

In a time of dark­ness it is es­sen­tial to be cau­tious and re­served. One should not need­less­ly awak­en over­whelm­ing en­mi­ty by in­con­sid­er­ate be­hav­ior. In such times one ought not to fall in with the prac­tices of oth­ers; nei­ther should one drag them cen­so­ri­ous­ly into the light. In so­cial in­ter­course one should not try to be all-know­ing. One should let many things pass, with­out being duped.

The Lines

Nine at the beginning means:
Darkening of the light during flight.
He lowers his wings.
The superior man does not eat for three days
On his wanderings.
But he has somewhere to go.
The host has occasion to gossip about him.

W ith grandiose re­solve a man en­deav­ors to soar above all ob­sta­cles, but thus en­coun­ters a hos­tile fate. He re­treats and evades the issue. The time is dif­fi­cult. With­out rest, he must hurry along, with no per­ma­nent abid­ing place. If he does not want to make com­pro­mis­es with­in him­self, but in­sists on re­main­ing true to his prin­ci­ples, he suf­fers de­pri­va­tion. Nev­er­the­less he has a fixed goal to strive for, even though the peo­ple with whom he lives do not un­der­stand him and speak ill of him.

Six in the second place means:
Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh.
He gives aid with the strength of a horse.
Good fortune.

Here the Lord of Light is in a sub­or­di­nate place and is wound­ed by the Lord of Dark­ness. But the in­jury is not fatal; it is only a hin­drance. Res­cue is still pos­si­ble. The wound­ed man gives no thought to him­self; he thinks only of sav­ing the oth­ers who are also in dan­ger. There­fore he tries with all his strength to save all that can be saved. There is good for­tune in thus act­ing ac­cord­ing to duty.

Nine in the third place means:
Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south.
Their great leader is captured.
One must not expect perseverance too soon.

It seems as if chance were at work. While the strong, loyal man is striv­ing ea­ger­ly and in good faith to cre­ate order, he meets the ring­leader of the dis­or­der, as if by ac­ci­dent, and seizes him. Thus vic­to­ry is achieved. But in abol­ish­ing abus­es one must not be too hasty. This would turn out badly be­cause the abus­es have been in ex­is­tence so long.

Six in the fourth place means:
He penetrates the left side of the belly.
One gets at the very heart of the darkening of the
light,
And leaves gate and courtyard.

We find our­selves close to the com­man­der of dark­ness and so dis­cov­er his most se­cret thoughts. In this way we re­al­ize that there is no longer any hope of im­prove­ment, and thus we are en­abled to leave the scene of dis­as­ter be­fore the storm breaks.

Six in the fifth place means:
Darkening of the light as with Prince Chi.
Perseverance furthers.

Prince Chi lived at the court of the evil tyrant Chou Hsin, who, al­though not men­tioned by name, fur­nish­es the his­tor­i­cal ex­am­ple on which this whole sit­u­a­tion is based. Prince Chi was a rel­a­tive of the tyrant and could not with­draw from court; there­fore he con­cealed his true sen­ti­ments and feigned in­san­i­ty. Al­though he was held a slave, he did not allow ex­ter­nal mis­ery to de­flect him from his con­vic­tions. This pro­vides a teach­ing for those who can­not leave their posts in times of dark­ness. In order to es­cape dan­ger, they need in­vin­ci­ble per­se­ver­ance of spir­it and re­dou­bled cau­tion in their deal­ings with the world.

Six at the top means:
Not light but darkness.
First he climbed up to heaven,
Then he plunged into the depths of the earth.

Here the cli­max of the dark­en­ing is reached. The dark power at first held so high a place that it could wound all who were on the side of good and of the light. But in the end it per­ish­es of its own dark­ness, for evil must it­self fall at the very mo­ment when it has whol­ly over­come the good, and thus con­sumed the en­er­gy to which it owed its du­ra­tion.