Darkening of the light — brightness wounded and driven into hiding.
In a dark time, the wise veil their brilliance in order to survive. Keep your inner light steady while concealing it outwardly. Endure, protect your integrity, and wait for dawn.
adversityconcealmentenduranceintegrity
Darkening of the Light places Earth (receptive, devoted) above Fire (clinging, light-giving). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
利艰贞。
The Image · 大象
明入地中，明夷；君子以莅众，用晦而明。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初九明夷于飞，垂其翼。君子于行，三日不食，有攸往，主人有言。象曰：君子于行，义不食也。
- 六二明夷，夷于左股，用拯马壮，吉。象曰：六二之吉，顺以则也。
- 九三明夷于南狩，得其大首，不可疾贞。象曰：南狩之志，乃大得也。
- 六四入于左腹，获明夷之心，于出门庭。象曰：入于左腹，获心意也。
- 六五箕子之明夷，利贞。象曰：箕子之贞，明不可息也。
- 上六不明晦，初登于天，后入于地。象曰：初登于天，照四国也。后入于地，失则也。
The judgment, image and line texts above are quoted from the original Zhou Yi. A modern Chinese translation of the full classic is available on the original-text page.