Ming Yi · Darkening of the Light

Judgment and Plain-Language Notes

Ming Yi: Steadfastness through hardship is beneficial.

The Tuan commentary reads light entering the earth as the meaning of the name: cultivated within and yielding without, able to bear great adversity as King Wen did. The favourable correctness through hardship means veiling your own brightness, holding the will straight through inner difficulty as Jizi did. The Xiang commentary asks the noble person governing others to appear unseeing and thereby see clearly.

Li below, Kun above: the light has sunk beneath the ground, the image of ability being suppressed. The judgement is four characters long and says only that correctness through hardship is favourable. The lines set out the whole course of being injured: a bird flying with drooping wings, three days without food, a wound to the left thigh, going deep inside the other side, Jizi feigning madness to survive, and finally a darkness that rose to heaven and then fell to earth. This hexagram does not offer a way to turn the situation around. It offers a way not to be broken by it: hide the light, keep the will straight.

Light enters the Earth and is wounded, while the judgment offers only beneficial steadfastness through hardship: the circumstances themselves are difficult. Images of damage run throughout: the first nine's three days without food and the host's criticism, the second six's wounded left thigh, the fifth's Jizi concealing his light through feigned madness, and the top's fall from Heaven into Earth. Though the second's strong rescue horse brings fortune and the third's southern hunt gains the great chief, these are narrow openings within adversity, hence the rating: Bad. This is the app's interpretation of the text, not a guarantee of outcomes.

Worth doing: protect your important ideas and your own safety, and complete the necessary work quietly. Avoid: open confrontation in a place that is not safe, or trading away what you actually value in order to protect yourself.

Understand This Hexagram Through Its Structure

Kun above, Li below: brightness pressed beneath the earth, its visible side covered.

• Name the upper and lower trigram of Ming Yi.
• Contrast Ming Yi with Jin.
• Say that swapping the halves turns Light Obscured into Advance.

The lower trigram of Ming Yi is Li: solid, broken, solid. The upper is Kun, all broken. Only the first and third lines are solid. It uses the same two trigrams as Jin with their positions reversed.

Li is light, and with a whole Kun above it the light is still there but cannot shine out. This hexagram concerns brightness being injured: the capability has not gone, the channel for showing it is covered. Note that it describes a present arrangement, not a judgement about anyone, and it does not foretell when things turn.

A teaching example, not a prediction: someone does strong work on a team that does not report outward, so the results never reach anyone who would notice. Ming Yi describes that structure; it does not say the person is lacking.

The Six Lines: Original Text and Reflection

Nine at the beginning: Darkening of the light in flight, wings drooping. The noble person travels, three days without food. There is somewhere to go; the host has words of criticism.

The Xiang commentary says the noble person on the road does not eat as a matter of principle, not for want of food. The base text keeps the older locative particle.

Like a wounded bird flying with its wings hanging down, the traveller goes three days without eating and is spoken about by the host on arrival. The early stage of a setback is both lean and misunderstood, but the fasting is a choice made on principle.

Just after leaving, or just after a setback, resources are thin and talk comes easily. Hold your principles, keep your mouth shut, and you get to the next stretch.

When you are misunderstood, are you defending a principle or your pride?

Six in the second place: Darkening of the light, wounded in the left thigh. Rescue with a strong horse. Good fortune.

The Xiang commentary attributes the good fortune here to yielding in accordance with what is proper. The left thigh is wounded, a strong horse carries out the rescue, and the outcome is favourable. The base text keeps the older locative particle.

The wound is in the left thigh, not in anything vital, and you can still walk. Calling in strong help in time is what makes this go well. The point is to draw on outside support after an injury rather than grinding on alone.

When you are hurt but still standing, find reliable people or resources to cover for you quickly. It restores you faster than gritting your teeth, and it lowers the chance of a second injury.

In this setback, have you let anyone genuinely help you?

Nine in the third place: Darkening of the light in the southern hunt. Capture the great chief. Do not hasten to impose correctness.

The Xiang commentary says that the intent of the southern hunt yields a great gain, while the line itself warns against haste. The hunting and military imagery of the original should not be read as instruction for action today. The base text keeps the older locative particle.

Hunting in the south and taking the chief figure is one of the few openings in this hexagram. The line immediately adds its own caution: even once you have found the root of it, do not try to put everything right in one pass.

When you finally locate the real source of a problem, resist the urge to operate all at once. Handle it in stages so the people around it can adapt, and the change will hold.

Does the root cause you found call for one fix or a staged one?

Six in the fourth place: Enter the left abdomen, obtain the heart of darkening light, and go out through the gate and courtyard.

The Xiang commentary says that entering the left side of the belly is a matter of grasping the intent. Having understood it, one walks out through the gate. The base text keeps the older locative particle.

You go into the most hidden part of it and see the real intention behind the darkness, and then you walk out. Understanding is what tells you to leave, instead of staying on and guessing.

Once you finally see how a place actually works, you usually also know whether you should stay. Leaving after the information is in is a judgement, not an escape.

Have you genuinely understood this situation, or have you just had enough of it?

Six in the fifth place: Jizi's darkening of the light. Steadfast correctness is beneficial.

The Xiang commentary says that Jizi's correctness lies in a brightness that cannot be extinguished. Jizi was a worthy minister at the end of the Shang, remembered for feigning madness to keep himself from harm.

Like Jizi, you conceal your light in a dark age in order to survive, and the brightness inside you is not put out. Correctness is favourable here because hiding the light is not the same as abandoning the will.

In a place where you cannot speak plainly, keeping a low profile is reasonable self-protection. Just do not switch off your own judgement along with it, because you will need it when conditions change.

The light you have put away, do you still remember what it looked like?

Six at the top: No brightness, only darkness. First ascending to Heaven, afterward entering Earth.

The Xiang commentary says that rising first to heaven means shining on all quarters, and falling afterwards into the earth means the standard has been lost. The base text keeps two older characters in this line.

The brightness is gone and darkness sets in. It rose first like a sun lighting every quarter, and then it fell beneath the ground. The reason for that fall is not luck but the loss of the standard it was supposed to keep.

Once a much-admired person or organisation stops keeping the rules it set for itself, the collapse is quicker than anyone's. The higher the position, the more often you should check whether your principles have slipped.

Which principle you once insisted on have you quietly relaxed lately?

Try It Yourself

Swap the halves and see which hexagram you return to. The same Kun and Li in the other order read the other way round.

This page has a hands-on exercise. It is built into the Traditional Chinese page: open the interactive exercise.

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