Upper trigram
☲
Fire (Li) above
Clarity and attachment.
FamilyMiddle daughter
ElementFire
Hexagram 56 of 64
I Ching hexagram 56 ☲☶ The Wanderer
I Ching hexagram 56, The Wanderer, is fire above, mountain below. In brief: being a stranger; travel light. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 3, 4 and 6 and its broken lines in 1, 2 and 5.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚋⚊⚊⚋⚊ 001101 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Fire over Mountain Li ☲ / Gen ☶
- Every line changed
- № 60 Limitation
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 187 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☶
Mountain (Gen) below
Stillness and limit.
FamilyYoungest son
ElementEarth
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 56
The Judgement
The wanderer: a stranger in unfamiliar surroundings. Small successes come through modesty, caution and good conduct, since there is no home ground to fall back on.
The Image
Fire on a mountain, moving on quickly. The lesson is to be clear and careful in judgment, and not to let matters drag on.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 56 in James Legge’s translation
“Lü intimates that (in the condition which it denotes) there may be some little attainment and progress. If the stranger or traveller be firm and correct as he ought to be, there will be good fortune.”
“(The trigram representing) a mountain and above it that for fire form Lü. The superior man, in accordance with this, exerts his wisdom and caution in the use of punishments and not allowing litigations to continue.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, shows the stranger mean and meanly occupied. It is thus that he brings on himself (further) calamity.
- Line 2 The second line, divided, shows the stranger, occupying his lodging-house, carrying with him his means of livelihood, and provided with good and trusty servants.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows the stranger, burning his lodging-house, and having lost his servants. However firm and correct he (try to) be, he will be in peril.
- Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows the traveller in a resting-place, having (also) the means of livelihood and the axe, (but still saying), ‘I am not at ease in my mind.’
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows its subject shooting a pheasant. He will lose his arrow, but in the end he will obtain praise and a (high) charge.
- Line 6 · top The sixth line, undivided, suggests the idea of a bird burning its nest. The stranger, (thus represented), first laughs and then cries out. He has lost his ox(-like docility) too readily and easily. There will be evil.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 187 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
The Wanderer for a decision
You are outside your usual territory. Keep commitments light, behave impeccably and do not stake everything on a temporary situation.
I Ching 56 in love and relationships
Distance, travel or feeling like an outsider. Kindness and respect make temporary connections go well.
Hexagram 56 at work
Travel, contract work or a new environment. Be adaptable and professional; this is not the place for power struggles.
The six lines of hexagram 56
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yin yang yang yin yang — what each position means.
3 yang and 3 yin lines. Two of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 1–4 answers.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Mountain below — stillness and limit — is the private, inner side of hexagram 56.
Fire above — clarity and attachment — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Fire above generates Earth below, so the movement runs downward — the outer situation is feeding the inner one. Support arrives from outside rather than being generated within.
Read as a family
The middle daughter sits above and the youngest son below. A brother and a sister, the older one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, so the order is one of seniority, not authority.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 56
Nuclear hexagram
28 · Great Exceeding
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Xun (Wind) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Dui (Lake) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
60 · Limitation
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Fire over Mountain becomes Water over Lake.
Inverse hexagram
55 · Abundance
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Fire over Mountain becomes Thunder over Fire.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Fire above, Mountain below.
Fire over Mountain: clarity and attachment meeting stillness and limit.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 56: The Wanderer.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/56/
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