Hexagram 22: Grace
Bi · 賁
The Judgment
Success. In small matters, it is favorable to undertake something. Grace brings success, but ornament is not essence. Use beauty sparingly, for little things. Major decisions require more than elegance.
The Image
Fire at the foot of the mountain, illuminating it. The person of character uses this light for clearing up current affairs, but does not dare decide controversial issues this way. Beauty clarifies the minor; it cannot resolve the fundamental.
「山下有火，賁。君子以明庶政，無敢折獄。」火在山腳下燃燒，把山照得好看。但光只到那麼遠。日常事務可以用美來處理，讓事情井然有序。但牽涉到是非對錯的大事，不能只靠漂亮——那需要更深的東西。
The Six Lines
Adorning the toes. Leaving the carriage to walk. When even the lowest parts receive attention, you might abandon the vehicle of ease for direct contact with earth. Grace that returns to simplicity.
Adorning the beard. The beard follows the chin—ornament depends on what it adorns. Decoration has no independent existence; it serves what it attaches to.
Graceful and moist. Constant perseverance brings good fortune. Beauty maintained, soft and living. If this is sustained, fortune follows. Freshness preserved.
Grace or plainness? A white horse, flying. Not robbers—suitors. Initial doubt about whether the approach is threat or invitation. Uncertainty resolves into connection.
Grace in the hill gardens. The bolt of silk is meager. Humiliation, but good fortune in the end. Simple offering, almost inadequate—yet sincere. The humble gift ultimately succeeds.
Simple white grace. No blame. At the height, ornament becomes simplicity again. Pure white needs nothing added. The return to unadorned truth.
Artwork & Treatise
The Kiss
Klimt
Two lovers embrace on a meadow strewn with flowers, their bodies wrapped in elaborate patterns of gold leaf. Gustav Klimt created this work during his Golden Period, transforming the intimate scene into a shimmering mosaic of geometric and organic decoration. The man's robe bears severe rectangular forms; the woman's gown flows with circular floral patterns. Gold transforms flesh into ornament, private feeling into public spectacle.
The I-Ching calls this Bì (賁), Grace—a character suggesting adornment, decoration, the surface that makes content visible. The hexagram shows Mountain (Gèn) above Fire (Lí): stillness resting over clarity and light. In ancient practice, this configuration appeared when form mattered, when ceremony enhanced substance, when beauty served truth. But the text treats grace with caution—decoration can reveal essential nature or obscure it. Klimt's gold leaf both celebrates the embrace and distances the viewer from the bodies beneath.
{artwork_reasoning}
The Judgment text speaks carefully: "Grace has success. In small matters it is favorable to undertake something." Grace succeeds in minor affairs, in social ceremony, in aesthetic refinement. But the text limits its scope—grace is not the solution to fundamental problems. Ancient diviners knew that decoration could smooth social friction, that ritual could restore harmony in small disputes, that beauty could make truth palatable. But grace alone cannot address structural flaws. Klimt painted passion as pattern, making feeling acceptable to Viennese patrons who purchased it for their walls.
The Image Text offers a crucial distinction: "Fire at the foot of the mountain: the image of Grace. Thus does the superior man proceed when clearing up current affairs. But he dare not decide controversial issues in this way." Use grace for daily matters, ceremony for small occasions. But when stakes are high, when truth is contested, when fundamental questions arise, decoration becomes dangerous. In the I-Ching sequence, Grace follows Biting Through: after removing the obstruction through force, grace smooths the remaining roughness. The next hexagram is Splitting Apart, when surface beauty can no longer conceal underlying decay.
Yilin Verse
政不暴虐，鳳凰來舍；四時順節，民安其居。
Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — Unchanging verse for 賁 (Bì)
Character-by-Character Breakdown
Classical Chinese text with pinyin and English meanings