Hexagram 30, line 4
九四Line 4 of Brightness (Fire)
Nine in the fourth place · 離 lí
爻辭 The line text
突如其來如，焚如，死如，棄如。The fourth line, undivided, shows the manner of its subject's coming. How abrupt it is, as with fire, with death, to be rejected (by all)!
突如其來如，无所容也。'How abrupt is the manner of his coming!'—none can bear with him.
In plain words
'Suddenly it comes: burning, dying, cast away.' Line four is the first line of the upper Li, the second fire, and it arrives as a blaze — yang in a yin place, not central, not correct, with nothing beneath it to anchor it. The four 如 of the text are a sequence: it comes without warning, it flares, it burns out, it is abandoned. This is brightness without a place to cling to, intensity that consumes itself. The small Image says no one can accommodate it (無所容也). The tradition reads it as the hot newcomer who presses on the ruler above and alienates everyone; the opposite of the second line's steady yellow.
If this line is changing
If you arrive at full blaze, you will burn out and be dropped; come in slowly, attach yourself to something that can hold you, and let the heat find a hearth.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
- It belongs to the upper trigram 離 Li (the Clinging) (fire).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 1: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
離 Brightness (Fire) becomes ䷕ 22 賁 Adornment
Fire at the foot of the mountain: beauty lighting the forms of things. Success in small matters through grace and style; ornament should serve substance, not replace it.
What it becomes22 · 賁 AdornmentbìThe six lines of 離 Brightness (Fire)
- 初九Nine at the beginningconfused steps · reverence · early light
- 六二Six in the second placeyellow light · the mean · great good fortune
- 九三Nine in the third placesetting sun · sing or lament · nothing lasts
- 九四Nine in the fourth placesudden arrival · burning out · no one can bear it
- 六五Six in the fifth placetears in torrents · sorrow · the ruler's place
- 上九Nine at the topthe king's expedition · strike the leaders · spare the followers
Read 離 Brightness (Fire) for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the fourth place of hexagram 30, Brightness (Fire), mean?
- 'Suddenly it comes: burning, dying, cast away.' Line four is the first line of the upper Li, the second fire, and it arrives as a blaze — yang in a yin place, not central, not correct, with nothing beneath it to anchor it. The four 如 of the text are a sequence: it comes without warning, it flares, it burns out, it is abandoned. This is brightness without a place to cling to, intensity that consumes itself. The small Image says no one can accommodate it (無所容也). The tradition reads it as the hot newcomer who presses on the ruler above and alienates everyone; the opposite of the second line's steady yellow.
- What does hexagram 30 become when line 4 changes?
- Brightness (Fire) becomes hexagram 22, 賁 Adornment: Fire at the foot of the mountain: beauty lighting the forms of things. Success in small matters through grace and style; ornament should serve substance, not replace it.
- Is line 4 of Brightness (Fire) in its correct place?
- It is not in its correct place (不當位): a yang line in an even position or a yin line in an odd one, which the tradition reads as a line under some strain — often the reason a text sounds a warning.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).