The Story

A lamp burned in a long study hall, tended by a thousand nights of scholars. It had been the same lamp for thirty years — oil renewed, wick trimmed, bowl polished, stand steadied. The flame seemed constant, but the scholar who tended it knew: the flame depended every minute on the oil, the air, the wick, the hand that trimmed it. When a new student thought to move the lamp, the scholar stopped him. "Clarity is never freestanding," he said. "It clings to what sustains it. Know what yours clings to, and tend it."

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The Judgment

Perseverance furthers. It brings success. Care of the cow brings good fortune.

The Image

Brightness doubled arises: thus the great person, by perpetuating this brightness, illumines the four quarters of the world.

Interpretation

Fire clings to fuel; clarity depends on what it rests upon. The hexagram names the nature of light: it is not independent but conditional. Sustain what your clarity clings to — relationships, disciplines, humilities — or the flame gutters. Docility, like a cow's, is part of wisdom.

Trigrams

The Six Lines

1. First (Bottom) Footprints running crisscross. If one is seriously intent, no blame. Scattered directions at the start; collected intent avoids error.
2. Second Yellow light. Supreme good fortune. Moderate, centred brightness — the warm glow of balance.
3. Third In the light of the setting sun, men either beat the pot and sing or loudly bewail the approach of old age. Misfortune. Either acceptance or grief — half-measures do not fit the hour.
4. Fourth Its coming is sudden; it flames up, dies down, is thrown away. Intense flashes that burn out quickly; no lasting light.
5. Fifth Tears in floods, sighing and lamenting. Good fortune. Grief sincerely felt and sincerely expressed; purification.
6. Sixth (Top) The king uses him to chastise, and there is occasion for majestic deeds. It is no blame to behead the leader. Correction aimed at the instigator, not the followers; clean action.