I Ching Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light - Meaning, Changing Lines and Guidance

I Ching Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light (Ming Yi), sets Earth above Fire and pictures the sun gone down under the ground: the light still burns, but it has been driven out of sight. This guide covers the Judgement and the Image of Hexagram 36, all six changing lines and the hexagram each one produces, its nuclear hexagram 40 and its opposite hexagram 6, and how Darkening of the Light reads for a decision, a relationship and work.

What does I Ching Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, mean?

I Ching Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, means the light is still burning but has been driven out of sight, so the intelligent response is concealment rather than display. The picture behind the hexagram 36 meaning is a sunset: Fire, the sun, has gone down under Earth. Nothing has been extinguished. The brightness is intact and simply below the horizon, which is why Ming Yi is a hexagram of endurance rather than defeat. Hexagram 36 turns up when the person asking is more competent, more honest, or more clear-sighted than the situation will tolerate. Someone above them is unsound, a workplace rewards the wrong behavior, a family punishes whoever names the problem. In that setting, showing your quality is what gets it damaged. Darkening of the Light says keep the quality and stop the showing. This is the hexagram of the person who knows exactly what is going on, says little, keeps their footing, and outlasts the conditions. Ming Yi does not promise the dark period will be short, and it does not promise vindication. It promises that a light kept covered stays alight.

The name carries the injury in it. Ming is brightness and clear understanding; yi is to wound or level, which is why older translations reach for words like wounded and hidden rather than merely dim. The old commentary on the sequence of hexagrams places Hexagram 36 immediately after Hexagram 35, Progress, reasoning that advance necessarily meets injury, and moves on to Hexagram 37, The Family, reasoning that the person wounded outside turns back toward home. That is the arc Ming Yi sits in: you went forward, you were struck, and the answer is to draw inward rather than press on. This is also why Hexagram 36 carries an unusually strong historical layer. The tradition attaches it to the last years of the Shang dynasty, when King Wen was held prisoner by a tyrant and his relative Prince Chi concealed his understanding to stay alive. Both figures appear in the line texts. Neither of them wins inside the hexagram; both of them last, which is the standard Ming Yi sets for a good outcome.

What is the King Wen number and structure of Hexagram 36?

Hexagram 36 is number thirty-six in the King Wen sequence. Its lines read from the bottom up as solid, broken, solid, broken, broken, broken, giving Li, Fire, in the lower three places and Kun, Earth, in the upper three. Only line three carries force upward.

What is the shortest reading of I Ching Hexagram 36?

The shortest reading of Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, is: hide your brilliance, hold your ground, wait it out. Ming Yi answers a question about a hostile environment with a strategy rather than a forecast, and it does not expect the dark to lift on your schedule.

Why is Hexagram 36 called Darkening of the Light and not simply Darkness?

Hexagram 36 is called Darkening of the Light because the light is the subject, not the dark. The Fire trigram does something specific in every line: flying, being injured, hunting, hiding. Ming Yi is about what a bright thing does under pressure.

Which two trigrams form Hexagram 36, and why does Earth over Fire produce Darkening of the Light?

Hexagram 36 is formed by Kun, Earth, above and Li, Fire, below, and this earth over fire hexagram produces its meaning by burying the source of light under the heaviest and most yielding thing there is. Li is the sun, clarity, and the eye, the trigram that sees and is seen. Kun is the ground, the crowd, the mother, the receptive mass that covers whatever is put into it. Stack the ground on top of the sun and you have described nightfall in structural terms. Nothing has consumed the fire; it has lost its position. That distinction runs through every line of Hexagram 36. The order also carries a social meaning. Kun is the multitude and Li is the individual intelligence, so Earth above Fire is the many sitting on top of the one who can see: talent under an unqualified majority, a bright person inside a dull institution, a clear head in a room that has agreed not to look. The trigram order is the whole diagnosis. It is not that clarity is absent, it is that clarity is underneath.

Read the two trigrams as instructions and Hexagram 36 becomes practical rather than gloomy. Li teaches attachment: fire has no substance of its own and lives by clinging to what it burns, which is why clarity in Ming Yi has to stay attached to something real, whether a principle, a person, or a piece of work you can still do honestly. Kun teaches yielding and service, and in Hexagram 36 that yielding is camouflage rather than defeat, because a person who moves like earth is not conspicuous. In the family attributions, Li is the middle daughter and Kun is the mother, so Hexagram 36 also pictures the younger and brighter figure covered by the older and heavier one, which is why the hexagram reads so cleanly for trouble with a parent, a founder, or a long-installed manager. By season and direction, Li belongs to the south and high summer while Kun belongs to late summer and the southwest, and the movement between them is the sun sliding off its noon position. Ming Yi is the hour after the peak, not the middle of the night.

What does the Li trigram contribute to Hexagram 36?

Li contributes the light being darkened in Hexagram 36. As the trigram of fire, brightness, and the eye, it supplies the intelligence and the vulnerability together. Because Li clings rather than stands, its clarity depends on staying attached to something worth burning for.

What does the Kun trigram contribute to Hexagram 36?

Kun contributes the covering weight in Hexagram 36. As earth, the receptive, and the multitude, Kun is what the light has gone under: the crowd, the institution, the inertia of a place. Kun is not evil in Ming Yi, it is simply on top.

How does Hexagram 36 differ from Hexagram 35 in trigram order?

Hexagram 36 and Hexagram 35 use the same two trigrams in opposite order. Hexagram 35, Progress, puts Li above Kun, the sun rising over the earth in plain view. Hexagram 36 puts Kun above Li, the sun beneath the earth. One is a promotion, the other an eclipse.

What does the Judgement of Hexagram 36 mean?

The Judgement of Hexagram 36 reads: Darkening of the Light. In adversity it furthers one to be persevering. It is among the shortest judgements in the book and every word is conditional. There is no promise of success, no supreme good fortune, and no encouragement to cross the great water. What the Judgement of Hexagram 36 offers is one instruction attached to a named condition: the hardship is assumed, and inside that hardship steadfastness is what pays. The Chinese phrase makes the difficulty explicit, so the perseverance being asked for is not general patience but the specific kind you need when conditions are against you and staying correct costs something. This is the point most often misread. Persevering in Ming Yi does not mean persisting with your plan, your campaign, or your attempt to fix the situation. It means persisting in your own integrity while the plan goes nowhere. The Judgement asks you to keep being the same person in a place that does not reward it, for as long as the darkness lasts rather than until you feel you have proved the point.

Read the Judgement alongside the history the tradition attaches to Hexagram 36 and the tone sharpens. King Wen is said to have been imprisoned by the last Shang ruler and to have used the confinement rather than fought it, and the commentary treats his conduct as the model the Judgement has in mind: outwardly compliant, inwardly unmoved, productive in ways nobody was watching. The hardship in the phrase is a captivity, not a passing inconvenience, and perseverance is the entire content of the advice. There is a second thing the Judgement withholds that is worth noticing. Many hexagrams state whether the situation favors action, movement, or an appointed goal. Hexagram 36 says nothing about any of that, and the silence is the answer. When Ming Yi is your hexagram, initiatives are neither blessed nor forbidden, they are beside the point. The variable the oracle is tracking is you, not the project. Hold the standard through the dark stretch and the Judgement considers the reading fulfilled, whatever becomes of the enterprise.

What does perseverance mean specifically in the Judgement of Hexagram 36?

Perseverance in Hexagram 36 means holding your own correctness while the situation stays wrong. Ming Yi assumes conditions you cannot move, so what you persevere in is character and judgment: not adopting the local standard, and not talking yourself into what you can plainly see is false.

Does the Judgement of Hexagram 36 promise the darkness will end?

The Judgement of Hexagram 36 makes no promise about when the darkness ends. It states the hardship as a condition and gives perseverance as the response, with no timeframe. Readers who want a horizon have to look to the changing lines instead.

Why does the Judgement of Hexagram 36 name adversity outright?

The Judgement of Hexagram 36 names adversity outright because the advice makes no sense without it. Steadfastness in easy conditions is no virtue. Stating the difficulty tells you the discomfort you feel is part of the reading, not a sign you drew the wrong hexagram.

What does the Image of Hexagram 36 instruct a person to do?

The Image of Hexagram 36 reads: the light has sunk into the earth, the image of Darkening of the Light. Thus the superior man lives with the great mass; he veils his light, yet still shines. The instruction has two halves and both bind. The first is social: stay among people rather than withdrawing. Ming Yi does not send you into a hermitage, it tells you to keep your ordinary place among ordinary people while conditions are bad. The second half is the famous one. Veiling the light is deliberate self-obscuring, the decision not to correct, not to display expertise, and not to let people see how much you understand. The closing phrase is what keeps this from being cowardice: he still shines. The veiling is directional, not total. People close by still feel the warmth and the steadiness even when nothing is on show. In practice the Image of Hexagram 36 asks for competence without visibility and presence without performance.

The Chinese phrase behind the second half pairs obscurity with brightness almost as a paradox: use darkness, and thereby be bright. Applied to leadership it becomes a method. A person governing under Ming Yi conditions does not interrogate, does not reveal that they have already worked out who is lying, and does not display the extent of their information. They let the surface stay unclear, and because nobody is being cornered, more truth arrives than a bright examination would have produced. This is why Hexagram 36 turns up for managers as often as for the managed. The first half of the Image carries a discipline too. Living with the great mass rules out the two easiest reactions to a corrupt environment, open denunciation and quiet contempt. Denunciation exposes the light and gets it wounded. Contempt separates you from the people whose ordinariness is your best cover. The Image asks you to be genuinely among them rather than merely hiding among them.

What does veiling your light mean in practice under Hexagram 36?

Veiling your light under Hexagram 36 means declining to demonstrate what you know. It looks like answering the question asked rather than the one behind it, letting a weaker analysis stand, and keeping your best work quiet until conditions change. The knowledge stays; the display stops.

How is the Image of Hexagram 36 different from its Judgement?

The Judgement of Hexagram 36 says what to hold and the Image says how to behave while holding it. The Judgement aims at the inner life. The Image gives conduct: stay among people, cover the light, keep shining anyway.

Does the Image of Hexagram 36 permit dishonesty?

The Image of Hexagram 36 permits concealment, not falsehood. Nothing in Ming Yi asks you to affirm what you believe is untrue or to help harm someone. The hexagram rests on the light staying intact, and a person who lies to survive has put it out.

What do the lower three changing lines of Hexagram 36 mean?

The lower three hexagram 36 changing lines describe the first stage of Darkening of the Light, when the dark is arriving and the bright person is still choosing a response. Line one has the traveler in flight lowering its wings, going three days without food, having somewhere to go, and being talked about by the host. Line two takes an injury in the left thigh, is carried clear by the strength of a horse, and has good fortune. Line three is the hunt in the south that captures the great chief, with a warning not to expect the correction too quickly. All three sit inside the Li trigram, which is why they are the active lines of Ming Yi: this is where the light itself is still moving. The progression is a study in cost. The first line pays with hunger and reputation, the second pays with a wound but keeps moving, and the third achieves the most and is immediately told to slow down. Nothing in the lower half of Hexagram 36 is free, and none of it is dishonorable.

Position explains a great deal here. The first line sits at the bottom, furthest from the darkness at the top, which is why departure is still available to it, and its correspondence with the fourth line is what gives it somewhere to go. The second line is yin in a yin place and central in the lower trigram, the most correct position in Hexagram 36, and the tradition reads it as King Wen himself: struck, but struck in the thigh rather than the head, with enough strength left to carry himself clear. Its good fortune comes from being correctly placed, not from being spared. The third line is yang in a yang place at the very top of Li, the brightest and most forceful position in the hexagram, standing in direct correspondence with the dark top line. That is what makes the southern hunt possible and what makes the caution necessary. A line that strong wants to finish the job, and Ming Yi tells it that a ruined state cannot be repaired at the speed of the person who ruined it.

What does the first line of Hexagram 36 mean?

The first line of Hexagram 36 means early withdrawal accepted at a price. The bird lowers its wings rather than displaying them, the traveler goes three days unfed, and the host gossips. Changing this line produces Hexagram 15, Modesty.

Why does the second line of Hexagram 36 promise good fortune despite an injury?

The second line of Hexagram 36 promises good fortune because the injury is survivable and the position is correct. The wound is to the left thigh, which slows movement without stopping it, and the strength of a horse carries the person clear. Changing this line produces Hexagram 11, Peace.

What does the hunt in the south mean in the third line of Hexagram 36?

The hunt in the south in the third line of Hexagram 36 means the source of the darkness is confronted and its leader taken. South is the direction of Li, so this is the light striking at full strength. Changing this line produces Hexagram 24, Return.

What do the upper three changing lines of Hexagram 36 mean?

The upper three hexagram 36 changing lines describe life inside the darkness at close range, since all three sit within the Kun trigram that covers the light. Line four enters the left side of the belly, gets at the very heart of the darkening of the light, and leaves by gate and courtyard. Line five is the darkening of the light as with Prince Chi, and perseverance furthers. Line six is not light but darkness: first he climbed up to heaven, then he plunged into the depths of the earth. Read in order, they give the positions available near a bad authority. The fourth line is the insider who sees the whole thing and gets out. The fifth line is the relative or trusted subordinate who cannot get out and survives by concealment. The sixth line is the dark power itself, at the summit and already falling. The Ming Yi hexagram is unusual in placing the tyrant at the top line rather than in the fifth place, normally the ruler's seat, and that displacement is the structural reason the fifth line of Ming Yi is so exposed.

The fourth line is the most quietly dramatic in Hexagram 36. Entering the left side of the belly is an image of getting inside, close enough to know intentions rather than announcements, and what the line does with that knowledge is leave. It does not stay to reform, does not report, and does not bargain. Changing that line produces Hexagram 55, Abundance, the same Fire trigram with Thunder above it instead of Earth, which suggests that whoever exits at the right moment walks toward their own peak rather than away from someone else's. The fifth line has no exit and is judged by a different standard. Prince Chi stayed within reach of the tyrant and made himself unreadable, and the line's only instruction is that perseverance furthers, meaning the concealment must not break. The top line closes Hexagram 36 by describing the darkness from the inside. It rose to heaven and then went into the ground, the same movement the sun makes in the hexagram, applied here to the one who caused it.

What does the fourth line of Hexagram 36 mean?

The fourth line of Hexagram 36 means learning exactly what is wrong and then leaving. Entering the left side of the belly puts the person close enough to grasp the heart of the darkening, and the line ends with them walking out. Changing this line produces Hexagram 55, Abundance.

What does the fifth line of Hexagram 36 mean?

The fifth line of Hexagram 36 means enduring at the closest possible range to the darkness. Named for Prince Chi, who concealed his understanding to survive a tyrant he could not escape, it asks for perseverance and nothing else. Changing this line produces Hexagram 63, After Completion.

What does the top line of Hexagram 36 mean?

The top line of Hexagram 36 is the darkness itself rather than a person coping with it. Not light but darkness, first climbing to heaven and then plunging into the earth, is the arc of a power that lost everything from the summit. Changing this line produces Hexagram 22, Grace.

What are the nuclear and opposite hexagrams of Hexagram 36?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 36 is Hexagram 40, Deliverance, and the opposite hexagram of Hexagram 36 is Hexagram 6, Conflict. The nuclear is built from the inner lines: places two, three, and four of Ming Yi give Kan, Water, and places three, four, and five give Zhen, Thunder, producing Thunder above Water, which is Xie, Deliverance. That is a striking hidden core for a hexagram about hiding, because Hexagram 40 is the storm that breaks a tension and releases what has been held. Concealed inside the darkening is the release that ends it. The opposite is found by changing every line at once. Every solid line in Hexagram 36 becomes broken and every broken line becomes solid, yielding Heaven over Water, Hexagram 6, Conflict. Ming Yi and Song are the two responses available to an unjust superior: go quiet or go to law. Hexagram 36 chooses the first, and the fact that Hexagram 6 warns against carrying a dispute to the finish tells you the oracle regards the alternative as worse rather than braver.

Hexagram 40 as the nuclear of Hexagram 36 changes how the reading feels over time. Deliverance is described as a thunderstorm clearing the air, and its counsel is to return to ordinary conditions once the tension breaks rather than prosecute the aftermath. Carried back into Ming Yi, that means the dark period has an ending built into its structure, and that the ending arrives as a sudden discharge rather than a gradual improvement. It also says what to do the moment it comes: Hexagram 40 tells you to forgive and let go, not to settle accounts, and the person who spent the dark stretch keeping their light covered will be tempted to do the opposite. One more relationship is worth holding. Turn Hexagram 36 upside down and you get Hexagram 35, Progress, its pair in the King Wen sequence. The old Miscellaneous Notes set the two side by side by saying Jin is daytime and Ming Yi is injury. They are the same six lines seen from either end of a single day.

How is the nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 36 calculated?

The nuclear hexagram of Hexagram 36 is built from its four inner lines. Lines two, three, and four read broken, solid, broken, which is Kan, Water. Lines three, four, and five read solid, broken, broken, which is Zhen, Thunder. Zhen above Kan is Hexagram 40, Deliverance.

What does Hexagram 40 as the nuclear reveal about Hexagram 36?

Hexagram 40, Deliverance, as the nuclear of Hexagram 36 reveals that release sits inside the darkness rather than beyond it. Deliverance is the storm that breaks a long tension, and its advice is to resume normal life without recrimination once it passes.

How does Hexagram 6 relate to Hexagram 36 as its opposite?

Hexagram 6, Conflict, is the line-for-line opposite of Hexagram 36 and represents the road Ming Yi refuses. Conflict puts Heaven over Water and warns that pressing a quarrel with a stronger party to its conclusion brings misfortune.

How does Hexagram 36 Darkening of the Light read for a decision?

For a decision, i ching hexagram 36 answers that the decision is real but the announcement is not permitted. Darkening of the Light rarely gives a clean yes or no, because it is answering a question about conditions rather than about the merit of your plan. What Ming Yi says is that whatever you decide should be executed quietly, without a stated rationale, and without inviting anyone to weigh in. The plan may be sound; the environment will not treat it fairly, so exposure is the risk rather than quality. Practically, Hexagram 36 favors decisions that can be made reversible, unremarkable, or invisible. Preparing an option, moving something out of reach, arranging a landing place, and holding position while conditions shift are all Ming Yi actions. Decisions requiring approval, publicity, a confrontation, or an official finding are the ones the hexagram warns against, since each puts the light where it can be struck. Hexagram 36 also asks a question back: whether the decision is driven by the situation's injustice or by your own judgment. The first is reaction, and the dark rewards reaction.

The changing lines are where Hexagram 36 becomes specific about a decision, and they do not all point the same way. Line one and line four both endorse leaving, on different terms: line one departs early, before the cost is fully clear, and pays in hunger and gossip, while line four departs late, after fully understanding the situation, and pays nothing at all. Line two says stay in motion despite damage. Line five says stay put and go unreadable. Line three is the only line endorsing direct action against the source, and even it comes with a brake attached. A reading with no changing lines is Hexagram 36 telling you not to decide yet. The other question worth putting to Ming Yi is what you are protecting. The hexagram assumes something bright is worth keeping intact, and every line takes its bearings from that. A decision that preserves your ability to work, your relationships outside the dark situation, and your own honest account of events is on the hexagram's side. A decision that spends any of those to make a point is not.

Does Hexagram 36 mean yes or no to a decision?

Hexagram 36 is closer to not yet and not openly than to either yes or no. Darkening of the Light responds to the environment rather than the proposal. Read it as a condition on method: if the decision can be carried out quietly, proceed. If it needs visibility, hold.

What should you ask yourself when Hexagram 36 answers a decision?

When Hexagram 36 answers a decision, ask whether you are moving toward something or reacting to someone. Ming Yi appears where there is a strong urge to prove a point or force an issue open, and it treats that as the darkness setting your agenda.

Does Hexagram 36 favor acting quickly?

Hexagram 36 does not favor speed, and its third line says so by warning against expecting perseverance too soon. Under Ming Yi, quick action is usually visible action, which is what the hexagram exists to discourage. Slow, unremarkable movement is the preferred pace.

What does Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, mean for a relationship and for work?

For a relationship, i ching darkening of the light describes a bond in which one person has gone dim to stay safe. That takes recognizable forms: a partner who has stopped saying what they think because of how it lands, a relationship kept out of view of family or colleagues, or a household where whoever names the problem becomes the problem. Hexagram 36 does not automatically mean the relationship is bad. It means honesty currently costs something, and it asks whether the dimming is a temporary strategy or has quietly become the permanent shape of the thing. The Judgement's perseverance applies to your own clarity, not to the arrangement. For work, Ming Yi is one of the most literal hexagrams in the book. It describes a workplace where competence is unwelcome, a manager who punishes accurate information, or a company whose leadership has already begun the fall the top line describes. Hexagram 36 advises keeping your standards, keeping your record, keeping your alliances outside the building, and keeping your assessment of the place to yourself until you are somewhere else.

In relationship readings, the fifth line of Hexagram 36 does the most work, because it covers people who cannot simply leave: a marriage with children in it, a caretaking arrangement, a family you will still have next year. Prince Chi's method translates into keeping your inner judgment intact while lowering how much of it you present, and the line's promise is only that perseverance furthers. That is a modest promise, and Ming Yi does not oversell it. The first line covers the opposite case, where leaving is possible and the correct move is to go early, quietly, and at a real cost rather than negotiate a graceful exit. At work, the fourth line is the instruction most people need. It gets close enough to understand exactly how the place operates and then walks out without a scene, which in modern terms means finishing your assessment before you act, securing whatever you are owed, and declining to deliver the parting verdict. The top line is the reason for the patience: Hexagram 36 holds that a leadership which climbed to heaven is already on its way into the ground.

What does Hexagram 36 say about a hidden or secret relationship?

Hexagram 36 fits a hidden relationship exactly, since the hexagram is built on something bright kept out of view. Ming Yi neither condemns nor blesses the concealment. It asks what the hiding protects and whether the conditions requiring it are temporary.

What kind of work does Hexagram 36 favor?

Hexagram 36 favors work that can be done well without being seen: quiet competence, groundwork, study, and anything that builds capability you can carry elsewhere. Ming Yi is poor for promotions, pitches, public credit, and formal complaints.

What is the main risk Hexagram 36 flags at work?

The main risk Hexagram 36 flags at work is the visible correction: the meeting where you finally say it, the email laying out the pattern, the resignation with reasons attached. Each lifts the cover off the light in an environment already identified as hostile.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is I Ching Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, a bad omen?

Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, is an unfavorable situation with a favorable instruction, which is not the same as a bad omen. The conditions are genuinely hostile: authority is unsound and honesty is punished. But the Judgement predicts no ruin, and the second and fifth lines both end well. Ming Yi treats survival itself as an achievement.

What is the Chinese name of I Ching Hexagram 36 and what does it mean?

The Chinese name of Hexagram 36 is Ming Yi. Ming means brightness or clear understanding; yi means to wound or to cut down. Ming Yi reads as brightness wounded, which is why Wilhelm rendered it Darkening of the Light and others render it Brightness Hidden. Some modern translators take Ming Yi as a calling pheasant, which fits the wings in the first line.

What does Hexagram 36 mean when it appears with no changing lines?

Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, with no changing lines means the dark period is not moving yet and your task is to hold position without altering it. No line points to a shift and no second hexagram offers an exit. Ask again when the situation actually changes rather than when your patience runs out.

Which hexagram does Hexagram 36 become when all six lines change?

Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, becomes Hexagram 6, Conflict, when all six lines change, putting Heaven above Water. The opposite of hiding your light under a bad authority is taking that authority to open dispute. Hexagram 6 warns that pushing a quarrel to the end brings misfortune, which argues for staying concealed.

Why does the fifth line of Hexagram 36 mention Prince Chi?

The fifth line of Hexagram 36 names Prince Chi because tradition treats him as the model for surviving a tyrant without becoming one. Prince Chi, or Jizi, was a relative of the last Shang ruler, could not escape the court, and concealed his understanding until he was taken for harmless. The fifth place sits directly beneath the dark top line.

Does Hexagram 36 mean I should quit my job or leave the situation?

Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, does not order you out, but it treats leaving quietly as legitimate. The first line has the traveler flying away with lowered wings and going three days without food. The fourth line has someone who learns exactly what is wrong, then walks out. What Ming Yi rules out is the dramatic exit.

How is Hexagram 36 different from Hexagram 35, Progress?

Hexagram 36, Darkening of the Light, is Hexagram 35, Progress, turned upside down, and the two are read as one pair. Hexagram 35 has Fire above Earth, the sun rising, and describes visible advancement. Hexagram 36 has Earth above Fire, the sun sunk beneath the ground, and describes talent that must go unseen.