Hexagram 36 — Darkening of the Light
King Wen #36 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
The light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame.
What Hexagram 36 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 36 places fire (离) beneath earth (坤) — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates below, receptive ground holding all things above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Darkening of the Light”: the light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
明入地中，明夷；君子以蒞眾，用晦而明。
(The trigram representing) the earth and that for the bright (sun) entering within it form Ming Î. The superior man, in accordance with this, conducts his management of men;--he shows his intelligence by keeping it obscured.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Light hidden within the earth: darkening of the light. The wise lead the many with gentleness that conceals their brightness.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 36 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Darkening of the Light describes the light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates, held inside a larger setting of receptive ground holding all things. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Darkening of the Light about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: the light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 36
What does 明夷 (míng yí) mean?
Hexagram 36 of the I Ching is named 明夷 (míng yí), usually rendered "Darkening of the Light" in English editions. Its figure is built from fire (离) below and earth (坤) above — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates beneath receptive ground holding all things.
Is hexagram 36 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 36 is warm: it contains one occurrence of 吉 (good fortune). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached.
What does hexagram 36 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Darkening of the Light points to the light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame. The figure pairs fire (离) beneath earth (坤) — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates meeting receptive ground holding all things — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 36 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Darkening of the Light through the figure itself: fire (离) below, earth (坤) above — light and clarity clinging to what it illuminates held inside receptive ground holding all things. The plain reading: The light is wounded. Hide your brilliance, endure, and guard the inner flame. The text carries 1 mention of 吉 (good fortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 36 mean?
A cast of hexagram 36 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 36 gives hexagram 6, 訟 (Lawsuit). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 36 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 36 gives hexagram 6 — 訟 (Lawsuit). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 35 — 晉 (Prospering). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 40 — 解 (Taking-Apart).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
利艱貞。
Ming Yi indicates that (in the circumstances which it denotes) it will be advantageous to realise the difficulty (of the position), and maintain firm correctness.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
明夷于飛，垂其翼；君子于行，三日不食。有攸往，主人有言。
The first NINE, undivided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Yi, flying, but with drooping wings. When the superior man (is revolving) his going away, he may be for three days without eating. Wherever he goes, the people there may speak (derisively of him).
明夷，夷于左股，用拯馬壯，吉。
The second SIX, divided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Yi, wounded in the left thigh. He saves himself by the strength of a (swift) horse; and is fortunate.
明夷于南狩，得其大首。不可疾貞。
The third NINE, undivided, shows its subject, (in the condition indicated by) Ming Yi, hunting in the south, and taking the great chief (of the darkness). He should not be eager to make (all) correct (at once).
入于左腹，獲明夷之心，于出門庭。
The fourth six, divided, shows its subject (just) entered into the left side of the belly (of the dark land). (But) he is able to carry out the mind appropriate (in the condition indicated by) Ming Yi, quitting the gate and courtyard (of the lord of darkness).
箕子之明夷，利貞。
The fifth six, divided, shows how the count of K? fulfilled the condition indicated by Ming Yi. It will be advantageous to be firm and correct.
不明晦，初登于天，後入于地。
The sixth six, divided, shows the case where there is no light, but (only) obscurity. (Its subject) had at first ascended to (the top of) the sky; his future shall be to go into the earth.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.