離 → 節

Commentary

Doubled fire meets water above the lake: brilliance accepts the wisdom of measured restraint. Frequently encountering communal feasts and drinking rites, one first loses profit but later gains blessing. Content with one's descendants, one remains in the ancestral dwelling. When petitions are made with sincerity, they are always granted, and there is no great regret. The verse describes a life of moderate pleasures within proper limits: social drinking at festivals, modest expectations, staying put rather than chasing fortune. From The Clinging to Limitation, fire's boundless radiance encounters the dam of water above the lake. The hexagram teaches that excess must be checked even in joyful things. The verse's protagonist accepts limitation gracefully — drinking but not to excess, losing but recovering — and discovers that measured contentment outperforms ambitious striving.