Hexagram 56

The Wanderer

Upper Trigram

Gèn

MountainStillness

ElementEarthDirectionNortheastFamilyYoungest SonQualitiesstill, stopping, resting

Lower Trigram

FireClinging

ElementFireDirectionEastFamilySecond DaughterQualitiesilluminating, dependent, radiant

Classical Texts

The Judgment

小亨。旅貞吉。

The Image

山上有火,旅。君子以明慎用刑,而不留獄。

The Lines

Line 1

初六 旅瑣瑣。斯其所取災。

Line 2

六二 旅即次。懷其資。得童僕貞。

Line 3

九三 旅焚其次。喪其童僕。貞厲。

Line 4

九四 旅于處。得其資斧。我心不快。

Line 5

六五 射雉。一矢亡。終以譽命。

Line 6

上九 鳥焚其巢。旅人先笑後號咷。喪牛于易。凶。

The Gulf Stream

The Gulf Stream

Winslow Homer, 1899; reworked by 1906

The Wanderer

American realist Winslow Homer depicts a Black sailor stranded on a dismasted boat surrounded by sharks in tropical waters. The man lies on the tilted deck, one arm trailing in the ocean, sugarcane stalks scattered around him. Behind, a waterspout twists across the horizon. The vessel drifts without anchor or destination, far from any shore. Homer painted this between 1899 and 1906 after extended time in the Bahamas, capturing the vulnerability of displacement. The sailor has survived the storm that destroyed his mast, but now floats in hostile territory without the means to navigate home.

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This is Lǚ (旅), the Chinese hexagram of The Wanderer. The character originally referred to military units traveling in formation, later extending to any stranger passing through unfamiliar territory. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Fire (Li) sits above Mountain (Gèn): flame on the mountain cannot remain fixed but must move across the landscape, finding temporary fuel before traveling onward. Homer's sailor embodies this precarious existence—the boat provides momentary rest but cannot sustain him indefinitely. He clings to wreckage between home and oblivion, belonging nowhere. American realist Homer depicts a Black sailor stranded on a dismasted boat surrounded by sharks in tropical waters. The man lies isolated far from home, adrift without anchor or destination, embodying The Wanderer's precarious existence. Homer painted this after extended time in the Bahamas, capturing the vulnerability of displacement and temporary passage through hostile territory. The Judgment counsels: "The Wanderer. Success through smallness. Perseverance brings good fortune to the wanderer." The ancient text warns that the stranger lacks social capital to recover from errors—each action carries amplified risk. Homer's sailor demonstrates this principle: adrift without supplies, every movement matters. A wrong gesture might attract the circling sharks. Inaction means slow death from exposure. In Zhou Dynasty China, travelers existed outside the ritual networks that defined belonging. They couldn't participate in ancestral rites or local governance, moving through communities without connection. Classical commentaries note that even the sage may find himself in wanderer's position, displaced by political upheaval or necessary retreat. The Image Text declares: "Fire on the mountain: the image of The Wanderer. Thus the superior man is clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and protracts no lawsuits." Fire moves across the mountain, consuming brush before moving on—it establishes no permanent presence. The wanderer must travel light, maintaining inner dignity while adapting to diminished circumstances. Homer exhibited this painting in 1906, as millions of immigrants crossed oceans seeking new homes. Critics objected to the painting's ambiguous ending—Homer refused to show rescue or death, leaving the sailor suspended in the wanderer's permanent transit. In the hexagram sequence, The Wanderer follows Abundance: after the zenith comes displacement, the necessary journey away from fullness toward the unknown that begins the cycle again.

Yilin: Forest of Changes

From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 56 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.

Yilin artwork for Hexagram 56
羅網四張,鳥无所翔。征伐困極,飢窮不食。

Nets are spread in every direction; the bird has nowhere to fly. Campaign and conquest pushed to the limit; starving and destitute, without food.

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Fire on the mountain returns to fire on the mountain — The Wanderer doubled. Nets spread in all four directions; the bird has nowhere to fly. The traveler, exhausted from endless campaigns, starves in his own destitution. This is the wanderer's condition taken to its logical extreme: when source and target are the same hexagram, the pattern intensifies without relief. No transformation occurs; the fire simply burns on the same mountain. From The Wanderer to The Wanderer, there is no escape from transience. The nets are ubiquitous, the hunger permanent, and the warfare without end. The only shift possible is in the wanderer's stance: even trapped, one may choose how to bear the unbearable.

中文注释

山上有火復為山上有火——旅之重卦。「羅網四張」——天羅地網,四面封鎖。「鳥無所翔」——飛鳥無處可去。「征伐困極,飢窮不食」——征戰至極,飢困而無食。此為旅人之處境推至極端:源卦與變卦相同,則模式無轉化地反覆加劇。火仍燃於同一座山,無處可變。從旅至旅,流離無解,羅網無隙,飢餓不止,戰事無休。唯一可能之轉變在於姿態:縱被困,仍可選擇如何承受。