I Ching Hexagram 30
Hexagram 30: Li (离)
Composed of 离 (Li) below and 离 (Li) above · clinging · fire · luminosity · attachment
The Judgment
离：利贞，亨。畜牝牛，吉。
Li (lí), Clinging: fire over fire, brightness doubled, and brightness has to attach to something. Correct conduct succeeds, and it is good to keep a cow - a working animal, strong, valuable and unremarkable. The mechanics are in the character itself: a lamp only burns while its wick rests against oil.
Translation notes
- 离: Wilhelm renders "The Clinging" — 离 is glossed in classical Chinese as 丽 - to fasten, to attach, to cling - and the commentaries keep returning to the wick resting on oil. Translations that render it as detachment or departure are following a modern English register rather than the attachment sense the character actually carries. If you drop the attachment, every line in the hexagram loses its subject.
- 畜牝牛: Wilhelm renders "Nurture the cow" — 牝牛 is not a pet kept to be docile; it is the animal that carries the milk and does the ploughing, patient rather than showy. The instruction is to keep something productive, calm and undemanding close - and in fire-over-fire terms, to let your brightness be useful to a steady thing rather than to itself.
The judgment above quotes the classical Chinese of the Zhou Yi (public domain); the English gloss and modern reading are our own. Compare with James Legge's The I Ching (Sacred Books of the East, Vol 16) , 1882 (public domain).
Quick Answers
Is hexagram 30 (Li) good or bad?
Good, with a condition attached. The judgment says correct conduct succeeds and then ends 畜牝牛，吉 - keep a cow, and it is good - which endorses something steady rather than warning you off. What it does not endorse is brightness for its own sake. The hexagram's hardest line is the top one, where fire at the ceiling has to be dealt with rather than admired, and 九3 makes a whole day of the difference between singing about decline and sighing about it.
What does hexagram 30 (Li) mean in love?
It means check what you are clinging to. The character means to attach or fasten, so the hexagram reads relationships as a matter of what holds on to what. The good news is 六二, a warmth that requires no performance. The warnings are 九3 - the relationship losing its brightness while you decide whether to sigh about it or keep singing - and 九4, the sudden and total loss of whatever you were attached to.
What happens when line 3 of hexagram 30 (Li) changes?
九三 turning yin gives Hexagram 21 (Shi He, Biting Through). The present line is the sun going down, with the instruction to keep singing rather than to sigh - decline handled with humour. The changed picture is biting through: something stuck and swollen has to be cut open. Concretely it fits the moment a fading thing stops being a mood and becomes a problem, at which point the honest conversation stops being the graceful option and starts being the only one.
The Six Lines
Read your line of interest below. Lines are read from the bottom (line 1) to the top (line 6). A changing line means the hexagram is transforming — see the related hexagrams at the bottom.
初九
履错然，敬之无咎。You tread on things unevenly and out of step; hold it with respect and there is no blame. Changes into Hexagram 56 (Lu-Wanderer) if this line is the changing line.
At the start, the movement is awkward and does not sit level - new fire has not found its footing. The line's fix is not technique but attitude: treat the untidiness with care, and the early clumsiness stops being a problem you have to correct.
六二
黄离，元吉。The yellow light; the highest good. Changes into Hexagram 14 (Da You) if this line is the changing line.
Yellow is the colour of good earth and of a light that is warm rather than white. This is the best line in the hexagram, and what it describes is clarity that arrives without strain - you stop performing the brightness and simply have something worth showing.
九三
日昃之离，不鼓缶而歌，则大耋之嗟，凶。The light of the setting sun; if you do not beat the jar and sing, you come to the sigh of great old age; bad. Changes into Hexagram 21 (Shi He) if this line is the changing line.
This is the crux of the hexagram and it is about how you treat decline. The old image is sitting at a meal and beating a clay jar in time, because there is no music for it and the jar keeps the beat. Heavy resignation about ageing is the failure named here; singing is the answer, and it is not denial - it is refusing to let the fading be the only thing you say about it.
九四
突如其来如，焚如，死如，弃如。It comes suddenly, like a fire; a burning, a dying, a casting away. Changes into Hexagram 22 (Bi-Grace) if this line is the changing line.
Sudden, total, and not your doing - the line describes a collapse arriving with no warning, and the four short verbs are all verbs of loss. Read it as the argument for not building your identity entirely on the thing that is burning, because when the fire goes out it goes out quickly and everything attached to it falls at once.
六五
出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉。Tears flow in floods and grief-sighs rise; good. Changes into Hexagram 13 (Tong Ren) if this line is the changing line.
Soft, weak, and in the middle - the line of the central position in the palace of fire, which is why it has to be held gently. The text calls heavy weeping auspicious, and the contrast it implies is with grief held in reserve while you keep playing your role. That reserve is what this hexagram is warning about.
上九
王用出征，有嘉折首，获匪其丑，无咎。The king goes out to campaign; there is a good and auspicious taking of the head, and the captive is not the herd; no blame. Changes into Hexagram 55 (Feng) if this line is the changing line.
Fire at the top has to find a proper outlet, and the text supplies one: an expedition that ends the problem at its source instead of going on to punish everyone involved. Applied to a person, this is the line for letting fire be fire for a purpose - anger used to finish something and then released, rather than smouldering or burning the people standing nearby.
Hexagram 30 in Love, Career & Decisions
Love & Relationships
Judgment: warm, and conditional on honesty - this hexagram is about attachment, so it is about what you are stuck to rather than how much you feel. Single: 六二 is the best line here, a clear and attractive warmth that needs no performance, while 九4 is the caution against being the one who gets scorched when the attachment ends without warning. Partnered: 九3 is the line to check, because the whole hexagram asks whether you can stay warm as the intensity of something fades, and 六5 says the honest thing - say the sad part out loud instead of performing steadiness. Where the feeling has become the structure, the diagnosis is 离: clinging to the relationship rather than living in it.
Say out loud the part of the relationship that has actually changed for you, instead of waiting for it to change back.
Career & Work
Judgment: yes to visibility, no to stardom. Fire over fire is brilliance, and the judgment adds 畜牝牛 - keep something steady and productive, which in work terms is the unglamorous capability your visibility actually rests on. Signal: 六二 is the line to aim for, clarity without strain, and it is worth noticing that it is a yin line holding the middle, so the best showing here is done with support rather than alone. 九4 is the attachment warning: if your standing depends entirely on the role, the collapse it describes will arrive without notice and take everything attached with it.
Build one steady, unglamorous competence that your visibility stands on, and stop treating the visibility itself as the achievement.
Making a Decision
Yes, but attach the decision to something that can hold it. The judgment says correct conduct succeeds and tells you to keep a cow, so proceed if you can stay clear-eyed and if the thing you are committing to has substance underneath it. Hold if the only thing holding this up is the shine - a title, a plan, a person's attention, a brand. Watch 九3, which asks whether you can keep your nerve as things taper off, and 九4, the sudden-collapse line: after that changes, the question stops being how bright this is and becomes whether anything is left underneath.
Proceed if something solid holds it up, and wait if the brightness is the only thing keeping it together.
Health & Wellbeing
Tone: bright but thinning, which is a useful thing to read. Li is fire over fire, so on wellbeing it maps onto energy that is genuinely there but is attached to something feeding it - a person, a project, a routine, a season. Read that way the hexagram asks whether you are still choosing your own fuel, and it is not a neutral question when the fuel is a job or a relationship. 九3 is the important line: the decline is coming and the wrong response is sitting with it heavily, so the whole health advice is to keep one part of the day uncomplicated and rhythmic. For entertainment and reflection only, not medical advice.
Keep one part of your day deliberately undemanding and rhythmic - a walk, a meal, a fixed bedtime - rather than letting every hour be for something.
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