Yarrow self-inverse source note · 2026-07-17

Li: What a Self-Inverse Hexagram Does—and Does Not—Mean

Read Hexagram 30 Li (The Clinging Fire) as a self-inverse zong gua: reversing its six-line order preserves the pattern without fixing the meaning, context, or outcome.

Cast one source-first reading Browse all 2026-07-17 notes

䷝

30 · Li · The Clinging Fire

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 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.

Complete source entry

Structural symmetry

Stored sequence: 101101

Reversed sequence: 101101

The equality is a property of the line arrangement. It is not a result forecast.

What self-inverse actually says

The local structured corpus records Hexagram 30's 综卦 (zong gua, inverse) as itself. Its stored six-line sequence is 101101; reversing the order still gives 101101. This is structural symmetry under a change of viewing direction, not evidence that the situation or its outcome is fixed.

Hold the pattern, vary the context

Write 101101 twice, reverse the second copy, and verify that the sequences still match. Copy one concrete phrase from the reference layer, list two different observable contexts in which it might matter, and choose one reversible check that could distinguish those contexts.

Common misread to avoid

Self-inverse does not mean predetermined, unchanging, or identical from every human viewpoint. It says only that reversing the six line positions leaves this structural pattern unchanged.

Source boundary

The reference layer and the self-inverse relationship come from Yarrow's bundled structured Zhouyi corpus. The English wording is an editorial explanation. This note is not a fresh cast, a prediction, or a promise that every direction leads to the same result.