Hexagram 56, line 3
九三Line 3 of Traveling
Nine in the third place · 旅 lǚ
爻辭 The line text
旅焚其次，喪其童僕，貞厲。The third line, undivided, shows the stranger, burning his lodging-house, and having lost his servants. However firm and correct he (try to) be, he will be in peril.
旅焚其次，亦以傷矣。以旅與下，其義喪也。'The stranger burns his lodging-house:'—and he himself also suffers hurt thereby. When, as a stranger, he treats those below him (as the line indicates), the right relation between him and them is lost.
In plain words
'The wanderer burns his lodging and loses his young servant; even if correct, there is danger.' Line three is yang in a yang place at the top of Gen, strong and rigid in a situation that calls for softness: the traveller who throws his weight about as if he were at home. The lodging is lost — burned, by his own doing — and the loyal servant that line two had is gone. The small Image is unsparing: 亦以傷矣, he too is hurt by it; and 以旅與下，其義喪也, treating those below him the way he does, as a stranger, he loses the proper relation to them. Firmness is not wrong in itself, the text says, but here it is dangerous.
If this line is changing
You are being hard in a place where you are a guest, and it is costing you the roof and the help you had; soften toward the people below you before the lodging is gone for good.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
- It belongs to the lower trigram 艮 Gen (Keeping Still) (mountain).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 6: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
旅 Traveling becomes ䷢ 35 晉 Advancing
The sun rising over the earth: progress. The capable prince is rewarded with horses and received three times in a day — advancement in the light.
What it becomes35 · 晉 AdvancingjìnThe six lines of 旅 Traveling
- 初六Six at the beginningpetty · small-minded · self-made trouble
- 六二Six in the second placea lodging · provisions · a loyal servant
- 九三Nine in the third placeburned lodging · servant lost · harsh to the lowly
- 九四Nine in the fourth placea shelter · axe in hand · heart not at ease
- 六五Six in the fifth placeshooting the pheasant · one arrow lost · praise and appointment
- 上九Nine at the topnest burned · laughing then wailing · ox lost too easily
Read 旅 Traveling for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the third place of hexagram 56, Traveling, mean?
- 'The wanderer burns his lodging and loses his young servant; even if correct, there is danger.' Line three is yang in a yang place at the top of Gen, strong and rigid in a situation that calls for softness: the traveller who throws his weight about as if he were at home. The lodging is lost — burned, by his own doing — and the loyal servant that line two had is gone. The small Image is unsparing: 亦以傷矣, he too is hurt by it; and 以旅與下，其義喪也, treating those below him the way he does, as a stranger, he loses the proper relation to them. Firmness is not wrong in itself, the text says, but here it is dangerous.
- What does hexagram 56 become when line 3 changes?
- Traveling becomes hexagram 35, 晉 Advancing: The sun rising over the earth: progress. The capable prince is rewarded with horses and received three times in a day — advancement in the light.
- Is line 3 of Traveling in its correct place?
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).