Hexagram 36 of 64
Darkened Light
明夷 Míng Yí
Upper trigram: 坤 Kūn, earth
Lower trigram: 離 Lí, fire
The judgment
利艱貞。
It is fitting to hold firm through hardship.
The Great Image
明入地中，明夷；君子以蒞眾，用晦而明。
Brightness goes into the earth: Darkened Light. In the same way, the noble person presides over the people by keeping dim while staying bright.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初九
明夷于飛，垂其翼。君子于行，三日不食，有攸往，主人有言。
Darkened Light in flight lowers its wings. The noble person on the road goes three days without eating. There is somewhere to go. The host has words to say.
A bird that lowers its wings in flight may be trying to pass unnoticed. If you have to travel light for a while and put up with complaints from your hosts, consider what you are willing to go without.
Line 2 六二
明夷，夷于左股，用拯馬壯，吉。
Darkened Light, wounded in the left thigh. Use a strong horse for the rescue. Good fortune.
A wound to one side slows the rider, and a strong horse comes to the rescue. Consider what strong help you could call on when you have been set back and cannot carry on alone.
Line 3 九三
明夷于南狩，得其大首，不可疾貞。
Darkened Light on a hunt in the south. Its great chief is captured. One cannot hold firm in haste.
A hunt in the south brings down the chief, and the line still warns against haste. If you have just won something large, ask what could go wrong if you tried to settle everything at once.
Line 4 六四
入于左腹，獲明夷之心，于出門庭。
Entering the left side of the belly, getting at the heart of Darkened Light, then going out of the gate and courtyard.
The line goes deep on the left side to reach the heart of the darkness and then out through the gate. If you have learned from the inside how bad a situation is, ask whether it may be time to walk out.
Line 5 六五
箕子之明夷，利貞。
The Darkened Light of Jizi. It is fitting to hold firm.
Jizi was a noble of the Shang court who is said to have feigned madness to survive a cruel king. Consider how you could protect what you know and value while you have to live under someone else's power.
Line 6 上六
不明，晦，初登于天，後入于地。
No light, darkness. First it rises to the sky, afterward it goes into the earth.
What rose to the sky ends up under the ground. Ask whether anyone near you, or you yourself, holds power that depends on keeping others in the dark, and how long that could last.
What this hexagram says
Fire below, earth above: the sun has gone under the ground. It stands for a time when light is hidden and capable people are in danger for being capable.
The judgment is three characters long and says to hold firm through hardship. The image adds a method, which is to lead with your brightness kept dim. Ask what you could keep to yourself for now while still doing right.
If your question is about a hostile workplace or a leader you cannot change, tradition reads this as a time for discretion and for staying quietly true to yourself. The lines move from hiding and getting hurt to leaving altogether. The last line is a caution that darkness imposed from the top can fall as far as it rose.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/明夷), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.