Hexagram 56 of 64 · King Wen order
旅The Wanderer
Lǚ · ䷷ · above: Fire ☲ 離 Lí · below: Mountain ☶ 艮 Gèn
Being a stranger in a strange land; the need for caution, reserve, and adherence to the rules of the environment.A one-line gloss written for this site (AI-assisted). Everything below it is the classical text.
The Judgment 卦辭
小亨，旅貞吉。
Lü intimates that (in the condition which it denotes) there may be some little attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.
James Legge, The Yî King (1882), the Text. Words in (parentheses) are Legge's own additions.
Commentary on the Judgment 彖傳 (Tuan, the first Wing)
1. 'Lu indicates that there may be some small attainment and progress:'—the weak (line) occupies the central place in the outer (trigram), and is obedient to the strong (lines on either side of it). (We have also the attributes of quiet) resting closely attached to intelligence (in the component trigrams). Hence it is said, 'There may be some small attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.'
2. Great is the time and great is the right course to be taken as intimated in Lu!
The Image 象
山上有火，旅；君子以明慎用刑，而不留獄。
(The trigram representing) a mountain and above it that for fire form Lü. The superior man, in accordance with this, exerts his wisdom and caution in the use of punishments and not allowing litigations to continue.
Legge's Great Image (Appendix II). The Chinese above also carries the Small Images of the six lines.
The six lines 爻辭
Read from the bottom (line 1) to the top (line 6). Each line: the Chinese, Legge's translation, and the Small Image commentary on it.
Line 1 初六
The first line from the bottom, yin (broken, six)
旅瑣瑣，斯其所取災。
The first SIX, divided, shows the stranger mean and meanly occupied. It is thus that he brings on himself (further) calamity.
Small Image: 'The stranger is mean and meanly occupied:'—his aim is become of the lowest character, and calamity will ensue.
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 30, The Clinging, Fire.
Line 2 六二
The second line from the bottom, yin (broken, six)
旅即次，懷其資，得童僕貞。
The second SIX, divided, shows the stranger, occupying his lodging-house, carrying with him his means of livelihood, and provided with good and trusty servants.
Small Image: 'He is provided with good and trusty servants:'—he will in the end have nothing of which to complain.
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 50, The Caldron.
Line 3 九三
The third line from the bottom, yang (solid, nine)
旅焚其次，喪其童僕，貞厲。
The third NINE, undivided, shows the stranger, burning his lodging-house, and having lost his servants. However firm and correct he (try to) be, he will be in peril.
Small Image: 'The stranger burns his lodging-house:'—and he himself also suffers hurt thereby. When, as a stranger, he treats those below him (as the line indicates), the right relation between him and them is lost.
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 35, Progress.
Line 4 九四
The fourth line from the bottom, yang (solid, nine)
旅于處，得其資斧，我心不快。
The fourth NINE, undivided, shows the traveller in a resting-place, having (also) the means of livelihood and the axe, (but still saying), 'I am not at ease in my mind.'
Small Image: 'The stranger is in a resting-place:'—but he has not got his proper position. 'He has the means of livelihood, and the axe:'—but his mind is not at ease.
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 52, Keeping Still, Mountain.
Line 5 六五
The fifth line from the bottom, yin (broken, six)
射雉一矢亡，終以譽命。
The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject shooting a pheasant. He will lose his arrow, but in the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge.
Small Image: 'In the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge:'—he has reached a high place.
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 33, Retreat.
Line 6 上九
The sixth line from the bottom, yang (solid, nine)
鳥焚其巢，旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易，凶。
The sixth NINE, undivided, suggests the idea of a bird burning its nest. The stranger, (thus represented), first laughs and then cries out. He has lost his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily. There will be evil.
Small Image: 'Considering that the stranger is here at the very height (of distinction),' with the spirit that possesses him, it is right he (should be emblemed by a bird) burning (its nest). 'He loses his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily:'—to the end he would not listen to (the truth about the course to be pursued).
If this line changes, it becomes Hexagram 62, Preponderance of the Small.
Related hexagrams
lines 2-4 below, 3-5 aboveOpposite 錯卦60. Limitation 節
every line changedInverse 綜卦55. Abundance 豐
turned upside down
A hexagram is a mirror, not a command: read it to reflect, never to obey. Sources: James Legge (tr.), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (Oxford, 1882; 2nd ed. 1899), public domain; the Chinese text from Project Gutenberg ebook #25501 (易經), public domain. The trigram facts and the related hexagrams are computed from the line pattern. The gloss, selection and arrangement are CC-BY-SA-4.0 (PlayfulProcess). Data: github.com/PlayfulProcess/recursive-iching.