Yi Jing · Chinese tarot
Grace
Hexagram 22 of the Yi Jing · 贲 Bì
The figure
The Mountain above Fire: light illuminating the foot of the mountain, form adorning substance. The image of grace, of beauty that gives shape.
What this figure illuminates
Grace lights up the importance of form — but a form that serves the substance, not one that masks it. True elegance reveals; glitter conceals.
For a decision, the figure questions appearance: “am I tending to form to serve the true, or to hide that something is missing underneath?”.
The classical text
The Judgment
Grace has its success — in small things. Let ornament serve, not lead, and it furthers a little.
The Image
Fire lights the foot of the mountain, gracing all it touches. Seeing this, the noble person brings clarity to daily affairs, but does not settle grave matters by appearances alone.
The Six Lines
- First line
Adorning your own feet: you give up the easy carriage and walk. To go plainly, on your own, is the grace here.
- Second line
Adorning the beard — ornament that only follows the face beneath. Adornment must move with its substance, not on its own.
- Third line
Graced and glistening with favor. Keep to what is true beneath the sheen, and good fortune lasts.
- Fourth line
Adorned, yet all in plain white — simplicity chosen over display. What seemed to bar the way is no robber, but comes for union.
- Fifth line
Graced by simple heights and gardens, offering only a modest roll of silk. It may look mean, but the end is good fortune.
- Sixth line
White as the only ornament — grace returned to plainness. No error.
Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).
A question to keep
Are you tending to form to serve substance, or to mask a lack?
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