Progress

The Rising Sun

Advance that meets no resistance: swift, visible, and easily dependent on another's favour.

Progress sets Li, fire, above Kun, earth, and the tradition reads the upper trigram here as the sun rather than the flame: light coming up over the land and growing clearer as it rises. The lower trigram is the Receptive, so the ground beneath offers no resistance, which is why the advance in this figure is swift and unforced. The Judgment describes a prince rewarded with horses in large numbers and granted audience three times in a single day, an image of favour and rapid promotion. The Image turns the same movement inward: the superior man brightens his own bright virtue as the sun brightens the earth.