30 · Lí · Fire
離 Fire below, 離 Fire above
The Judgment[paragraph continues] Let (its subject) also nourish (a docility like that of) the cow, and there will be good fortune.
Line 1The first NINE, undivided, shows one ready to move with confused steps. But he treads at the same time reverently, and there will be no mistake.
Line 2The second SIX, divided, shows its subject in his place in yellow. There will be great good fortune.
Line 3The third NINE, undivided, shows its subject in a position like that of the declining sun. Instead of playing on his instrument of earthenware, and singing to it, he utters the groans of an old man of eighty. There will be evil.
Line 4The fourth NINE, undivided, shows the manner of its subject's coming. How abrupt it is, as with fire, with death, to be rejected (by all)!
Line 5The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject as one with tears flowing in torrents, and groaning in sorrow. There will be good fortune.
Line 6The topmost NINE, undivided, shows the king employing its subject in his punitive expeditions. Achieving admirable (merit), he breaks (only) the chiefs (of the rebels). Where his prisoners were not their associates, he does not punish. There will be no error.
— James Legge, 1882
Text: James Legge's 1882 translation (public domain), lightly presented. Our own reading of each hexagram is being written.