What this hexagram is about
Fire shines by clinging to what it burns — the image of brightness and of dependence. One must cling to what is right: hold to the upright way and keep to gentleness, and so the light endures and shines on every side.
The Judgment 卦辞
利贞，亨。畜牝牛，吉。
Favorable to persevere. Success. Tending the cow brings good fortune.
The Image 大象传
《象》曰：明两作，离；大人以继明照于四方。
Brightness rises twice; so the great person carries on that light to illumine the four quarters.
Commentary on the Lines 小象传
履错之敬，以辟咎也。
Treading with crossed and careful reverence — and so avoiding fault.
The Six Lines (hover over the figure above)
Nine at the top王用出征，有嘉折首，获其匪丑，无咎。
The king marches out to subdue and wins his victory, taking the chief offender's head; he punishes the ringleader alone and does not extend it to the led-astray — there is no fault.
Six in the fifth place出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉。
Tears streaming down, long sighs of grief — anxious, watchful, never daring to take ease — and so good fortune comes after all.
Nine in the fourth place突如其来如，焚如，死如，弃如。
It comes on fierce and sudden, like a blaze that consumes, dealing death, and is cast off in the end — rash, hot-headed action bringing its own ruin.
Nine in the third place日昃之离，不鼓缶而歌，则大耋之嗟，凶。
A clinging like the sun sloping into the west, its light near spent: unable now to drum on the jar and sing, to take the hour in stride, one falls instead to the sighing of old age — misfortune.
Six in the second place黄离，元吉。
Clinging to the way of balance and rectitude, cultured and holding the center — yellow being the color of the center — the highest good fortune.
Initial Nine履错然，敬之无咎。
First stepping into the affairs of the world, the footsteps crossing, not yet settled; keep a reverent care in the heart, and there is no fault.