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Hexagram 36: Ming Yi (明夷) — Darkening of the Light
Hexagram 36, Ming Yi (明夷) — Darkening of the Light, is the thirty-sixth figure of the Book of Changes, composed of the Earth trigram over the Fire trigram; the ancients read it as brightness buried and kept alive within.
Meaning
Ming Yi is the hexagram of the hidden light. Fire, the image of clarity, lies buried beneath the earth, and the old readers saw a time of darkness in which the light is not extinguished but concealed. The judgment is measured: in adversity it furthers one to be persevering. The figure is the book's teaching on how to endure an age of wrong — not by blazing openly and being consumed, but by keeping the inner light intact and unspoiled until the darkness passes.
Read against a public life, the hexagram describes the lot of the honest person under a bad regime. The lines move through the stages of concealment: the bird lowers its wings, the superior man goes three days without eating, the great leader is captured. The commentators named Prince Ji, who feigned madness to survive a tyrant's court, as the exemplar of the figure. The teaching is that openness is not always possible, and that survival for the sake of a later good is itself a virtue.
For a person whose goodness is unrecognised or punished, Ming Yi was read as the cost of bearing light in a dark time. The fourth line — he penetrates the left side of the belly, and gets at the very heart of the darkening — was the ancients' picture of coming to understand the source of the wrong one suffers. And the closing line, first climbing to heaven then plunging into the depths, was their warning that arrogance in prosperity is what makes the fall, when it comes, so complete.
Within a cycle, this figure marks a phase when outward action is blocked and the wise course is inward. The image of fire under the earth is the book's picture of a brightness that must be shielded to be preserved. The counsel is patience with a purpose — to protect what is clear in oneself, to speak little and keep faith, so that when the darkness lifts the light is still there, undimmed.
The Judgment
“Darkening of the Light. In adversity it furthers one to be persevering.”
The Six Lines of Darkening of the Light
Line 1Darkening of the light during flight. He lowers his wings. The superior man does not eat for three days on his wanderings. But he has somewhere to go.
Line 2Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh. He gives aid with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 3Darkening of the light during the hunt in the south. Their great leader is captured. One must not expect perseverance too soon.
Line 4He penetrates the left side of the belly. One gets at the very heart of the darkening of the light.
Line 5Darkening of the light as with Prince Ji. Perseverance furthers.
Line 6Not light but darkness. First he climbed up to heaven; then he plunged into the depths of the earth.
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Frequently Asked Questions
How is Hexagram 36 arranged?
Ming Yi (明夷) places the Earth trigram (Kun, 坤) above the Fire trigram (Li, 离). Brightness buried beneath the earth was the ancients' image of a light that is concealed but not put out — the visual root of the meaning of the darkening of the light.
What does the judgment of Hexagram 36 say?
It reads: 'Darkening of the Light. In adversity it furthers one to be persevering.' The old commentaries explain that when outward light is blocked, the work becomes inward — to keep one's own clarity intact through hardship, rather than to blaze openly and be consumed.
Why is Prince Ji the model for Hexagram 36?
The fifth line, 'Darkening of the light as with Prince Ji,' refers to a noble who feigned madness to survive a tyrant's court with his integrity whole. The commentators saw in him the teaching that at times the honest person must conceal his light to preserve it for a later day.
Related
Source: Judgment and line texts follow the Wilhelm/Baynes rendering of the Yijing.
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