Lu · The Traveler

Judgment and Plain-Language Notes

Lu: Small success. The traveler's steadfastness brings good fortune.

The Tuan commentary says the traveller finds small success because the yielding holds the centre while abroad and defers to the firm, stilling below and clinging to clarity above. It closes by marvelling at how much meaning the time of travel contains. The Xiang image is fire on the mountain, moving with the terrain and never resting long, and the noble person applies penalties with clarity and care and does not let cases pile up.

Li above, Gen below. Fire moves across the mountain: this is being on the road, lodging in a place not your own. The judgement grants only small success and makes even that conditional on holding correct, a more reserved tone than most hexagrams. The lines run through the traveller's whole range: petty grievances that bring trouble on yourself, lodging with funds and a reliable servant, lodging burnt down and the servant lost, shelter and money with an unquiet heart, one arrow spent for a reputation gained, and a nest burnt after laughter. With shallow roots abroad, care, deference and letting small things go are what keep you going.

The judgment combines a limit and a condition: success is small, and fortune depends on right conduct rather than being unconditional. Positives include the second six's loyal young servant and the fifth's eventual praise and appointment. Negatives include the first's self-invited calamity, third's burnt lodging and lost servant, and top's laughter turning to wailing and misfortune. Even the fourth remains unhappy despite obtaining resources and an axe. Favorable and adverse are roughly equal, with outcomes largely dependent on the traveler's attitude rather than external conditions, hence the rating: Neutral. This is the app's interpretation of the text, not a guarantee of outcomes.

Worth doing: keep a modest, alert manner, travel light and respect the rules of where you are. Avoid: making a display in unfamiliar ground, getting drawn into petty affairs, or mistaking a temporary base for a foundation.

Understand This Hexagram Through Its Structure

Li above, Gen below: fire on a mountain — a structure of being somewhere not your own.

• Name the upper and lower trigram of Lü (The Traveller).
• Explain why it reads as travelling.
• Point out that The Traveller and Adornment use the same two trigrams in the other order.

The lower trigram of Lü is Gen: two broken lines with a solid third. The upper is Li: solid, broken, solid. The third, fourth and sixth lines are solid. It is also the hexagram you get by flipping the bottom line of Li.

Gen is a mountain, which does not move; Li is fire, which burns only by clinging to something else. Fire on a mountain is in a temporary place, so this reads as travelling. The hexagram concerns being somewhere that is not yours: the rules are not yours to set and only so much can be carried, so what to bring and what to leave must be told apart.

A teaching example, not a prediction: an engineer is seconded to another team for three months and works with that team's tools and process. Lü describes that structure of a temporary position.

The Six Lines: Original Text and Reflection

Six at the beginning: The traveler is petty and fussy, thereby inviting calamity.

The Xiang commentary says the traveller's pettiness brings the calamity of a cramped will. The root of it is a mind already squeezed narrow and filled with small matters.

At the very start of the journey you are already haggling over trivia, and that is exactly how the trouble is brought on yourself. The commentary locates the cause in a will pressed into too small a space.

Spending your first week in a new place arguing over seating, workload and who did more loses you the room quickly. Widen your frame and let the small things pass.

Is the small thing you are arguing over worth what it costs you?

Six in the second place: The traveler reaches lodging, keeping resources close and gaining a loyal young servant.

The Xiang commentary says gaining an upright young servant means there is nothing to regret in the end. Lodging, funds and a reliable person together make the steadiest state available on the road.

The traveller finds somewhere to stay, carries enough money and gains a loyal, dependable servant. The commentary says that nothing is left to complain of in the end.

Getting a footing in an unfamiliar place needs three things: somewhere to live, money to last and someone you can trust. Missing any one of them makes it hard, so secure all three as soon as you land.

Of shelter, savings and someone trustworthy, which are you short of?

Nine in the third place: The traveler's lodging burns, and the young servant is lost. Persistence is dangerous.

The Xiang commentary notes the injury first, then the cause: treating those below you as a traveller does means losing them by rights.

The lodging burns down and the dependable servant is gone, and even holding correct leaves danger. The commentary says the people scattered because of how they were treated.

Losing both your base and your contacts in a strange place is rarely bad luck; more often the way you treated people was too hard. When those willing to help you leave, look at yourself first.

Did the person who recently left hint at something before they went?

Nine in the fourth place: The traveler finds a place, obtaining resources and an axe. My heart is unhappy.

The Xiang commentary says the traveller's lodging is not a proper position, so even with funds and tools in hand the heart is not at ease.

The traveller finds a place to rest for now and obtains money and an axe, yet the heart is not easy. The commentary says the reason is that this was never the right position to hold.

Decent pay, reasonable conditions and a persistent unease usually mean this is not where you want to be. Admitting that and planning the next step works better than talking yourself into contentment.

The conditions are fine, so what is the real reason you are not happy?

Six in the fifth place: Shooting a pheasant, losing one arrow. In the end, praise and appointment.

The Xiang commentary says the reputation and the appointment come from reaching those above. What was lost is slight and what was gained sits higher up.

Shooting at the pheasant costs you one arrow, and in the end it brings reputation and appointment. The commentary says the intent reached upward, so a small loss bought a large return.

Being willing to spend a little to be seen usually beats saving that cost. What matters is aiming in the direction of the people who actually decide.

Which arrow are you willing to lose in order to be seen?

Nine at the top: A bird's nest burns. The traveler first laughs, then wails. Losing an ox through carelessness. Misfortune.

The Xiang commentary says a traveller placed at the top is in a position that by rights burns, and that losing the ox through carelessness leaves not even news of it in the end.

The bird's nest is burnt, and the traveller laughs first and then wails aloud. The ox is lost through carelessness, and the outcome is poor. The commentary says a guest perched at the top is exposed from the start.

Climbing to the top as an outsider and then losing your head tends to burn down the place you were living in. The better the wind, the more worth remembering how shallow your roots here really are.

Is the height you are standing at matched by your roots in this place?

Try It Yourself

Swap the halves so Li moves down and Gen moves up, and see what the name becomes.

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

Quick Quiz