Hexagram 22: Grace

賁 (Bì)

Beauty, elegance, and the importance of outward appearance.

Overview

Now you are gathering the fruit of your earlier effort. You worked hard and you knew what you wanted. At this new level, the road ahead looks easy and free of obstacles.

What you achieved before now decorates your life and your actions. You are doing brilliantly. The experience and knowledge you have gained make you stand out, and the people around you can see it.

All this makes you happy, of course. From one good situation you move into another that promises just as much. Only do not fall into the trap that fate lays here: good results must not make you stop growing.

Keep in mind that everything you have now came from past work. But you cannot live off the fruit of the past forever. To keep your life as pleasant and joyful as it is now, you will have to work again.

This sign teaches you to make your success secure. What you achieve is always in proportion to the effort you put in. If you do nothing, you will get nothing.

People around you

The same is true of your relationships with the people around you. Like everyone, you want your friends and your family to understand you and to approve of what you do. But wanting it is not enough. Do not forget to take an interest in your friends' lives. Giving back matters here. As you are to them, so they will be to you.

Work and rest

In your work, try to hold on to the results you have. After that, move on to making new plans.

Do not forget to take short breaks so that you do not wear yourself out. After a rest, with a clear head, real results come more easily.

Your wish

It is too early to speak of your wish coming true soon. You are at the very start of the road to it. Simply do what has to be done to reach your goal. Effort of that kind tends to be repaid.

This Overview is one traditional reading of the figure, offered as a prompt for reflection and perspective rather than a prediction of a fixed future. Where this material comes from.

New to the sequence? See how lines, trigrams and changing lines work, or cast your own reading with the three-coin method.

Structure

Read from the bottom upward, hexagram 22 is Mountain over Fire. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Thunder over Water. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Lí · Fire Clinging and bright
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous