EN (English)
䷣
Hexagram 36 of 64
Darkening of the Light
明夷 · Míng Yí
The sun sunk beneath the earth. The inversion of Progress, and the classic's account of how to keep your integrity intact in a time that punishes it.
adversity
concealment
integrity
surviving a bad regime
- King Wen number
- 36 of 64
- Above
- ☷ Kūn · Earth
- Below
- ☲ Lí · Fire
- Composition
- Earth over Fire
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · broken · solid · broken · broken · broken
- Chinese
- 明夷 · Míng Yí
The Judgment
In hardship, it rewards holding to the course.
The whole Judgment. No success is promised, only that steadiness through the difficulty is worth it.
The Image
The light has gone into the earth: Darkening of the Light. So the noble person, living among the many, veils their brightness and still shines.
The book's most quoted survival instruction. Concealment that does not extinguish what is being concealed.
What it means
Ming Yi is the exact inversion of Progress: the sun has gone below the horizon. The classic reads it as a bad regime, a hostile institution, or any period in which capability and honesty are liabilities.
The Image gives the strategy the hexagram is famous for. Living among people in such a time, veil your brightness and go on shining. The concealment is real and so is what is being concealed. This is not advice to become dull; it is advice to stop advertising.
The fifth line names its model. Prince Ji served under the last Shang king, saw what was coming, and preserved himself by appearing to be mad. The classic holds him up as the type of intelligent survival under tyranny, and it is worth noting that the book chose a man who dissembled rather than a man who died.
The other lines cover the practical range: leaving early and being gossiped about, being wounded and carried out, going deep enough to understand the situation and then walking out through the courtyard. The top line belongs to whoever caused the darkness, and describes the ascent and the fall in eight characters.
In a reading
Darkening of the Light as an answer describes conditions where being visible, capable or honest is being punished.
Its counsel is protective rather than heroic. Keep your own standards, do not display them, do not expect fairness from the situation, and preserve yourself. The hexagram's assumption is that the darkness has an end and that your job is to still be intact when it arrives.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
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Six at the top
Not light but darkness. First he climbed to heaven, then plunged into the earth.
The one who caused the darkness. The whole arc of a tyranny in a single line.
-
Six in the fifth place
The darkening of the light as with Prince Ji. Steadfastness rewards.
The historical model: a nobleman who feigned madness under a tyrant and survived with his convictions intact.
-
Six in the fourth place
He enters the left side of the belly and reaches the heart of the darkening, then goes out through the gate and courtyard.
Getting close enough to understand the thing, and then leaving. The classic does not recommend staying to fix it.
-
Nine in the third place
The light darkens during the hunt in the south. Their great chief is taken. One must not expect a quick settlement.
The source of the darkness removed, and the warning that the aftermath is slow.
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Six in the second place
The light darkens; he is wounded in the left thigh. He is rescued by the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Injured but not disabled. Help arrives with enough force to carry him out.
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Nine at the beginning
The light darkens in flight; he lowers his wings. The noble person does not eat for three days on the road, and has somewhere to go. The host gossips.
Leaving early and hungry, and being talked about for it. The classic accepts all three costs.
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