A source-first reading note for Hexagram 30, Li (The Clinging Fire), with a reference translation, trigram frame, and one reversible observation practice.
Reference translation
Li signifies that which clings, attached to brightness. It is favorable to undertake great affairs; success. To rear a docile cow brings good fortune. The Commentary on the Judgment says: Li means clinging. Sun and moon cling to the heavens; the hundred grains, grass, and trees cling to the earth. Doubled brightness cleaves to what is correct, and thereby transforms and perfects all under heaven. The yielding clings to the central and the correct; therefore there is success, and therefore "rearing a docile cow brings good fortune." The Commentary on the Image says: Brightness rises twice: this is Li. Thus the great man, with unceasing light, illumines the four quarters.
See the original-text and authority layers in the complete catalog entry.
Context from the authority layer
The hexagram Li carries the image of "doubled brightness"—an image that refers both to the form of the hexagram and to its inherent virtue. Within the Yijing, two hexagrams speak of "transforming and completing all under heaven": one is Bi, the other is Li. Both illustrate how light possesses the virtue of illuminating all things universally. Yet compared with other natural images, light lacks the solid weight of earth's virtue, lacks the spiritual fluidity of water's virtue, and lacks the lush flourishing of wood's virtue. Light can only prove its own existence by attaching itself to these other substances.
Read the structure before the slogan
The lower trigram is 离 (火), associated in the bundled corpus with 丽; the upper trigram is 离 (火), associated with 丽. Read the lower trigram as the inner or starting field and the upper trigram as the outward field before turning the pattern into advice.
One accountable observation practice
Copy one concrete verb, condition, or image from the reference translation for Hexagram 30. Name one place where it is observable in the situation you are examining. Then choose one small step you can reverse and write the condition that would make you review it.
Common misread to avoid
Do not turn The Clinging Fire into a personality label, a guaranteed event, or a verdict about another person. The translation and trigram frame are source layers to examine, not an instruction to surrender judgment.
Source boundary
The reference translation and context are drawn from Yarrow's bundled structured Zhouyi authority layer. Yarrow keeps that layer separate from optional modern reflection. This page does not claim that Hexagram 30 was cast for your question.