The Clinging Fire
The Doubled Brightness
Clarity has no substance of its own: what gives light clings to what feeds it, and can burn that away.
Li is one of the eight hexagrams formed by doubling a single trigram, and its title accordingly names the element: fire over fire. The trigram holds one yielding line between two firm ones, and its name carries two senses at once, to cling and to be bright, since fire has no substance of its own and depends upon the fuel it adheres to. The Image reads the doubling as brightness rising twice, by which the great man illumines the four quarters of the world. The Judgement adds that perseverance furthers and that care of the cow brings good fortune, the cow standing for the docility that clarity requires.
Light
Stands for clarity, intelligence, and the light of culture, together with the dependence that sustains them, since whatever gives light must be attached to something that feeds it.
Shadow
Fire consumes what carries it. The lines describe a flame that comes suddenly, blazes, dies down and is thrown away, warning of brilliance without substance and of an attachment that burns out its own support.
