Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Lu · 旅
The Judgment
Success through smallness. Persistence brings good fortune to the wanderer. When a stranger, you should not be gruff or overbearing. Having no large circle of acquaintances, don't give yourself airs. Be cautious and reserved—this protects from evil. Be obliging toward others and win success. A wanderer has no fixed abode; home is the road. Take care to remain upright and steadfast, sojourning only in proper places, associating only with good people. Then you have good fortune and can go your way unmolested.
The Image
Fire on the mountain. Be clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and protract no lawsuits. When grass on a mountain takes fire, there is bright light, but the fire does not linger—it travels on to new fuel. Penalties and lawsuits should be like this: a quickly passing matter, not dragged out indefinitely. Prisons should be temporary lodging places, not dwelling places.
「山上有火，旅。」山上的草著火，有明亮的光，但火不會停留在一個地方——它繼續移動，尋找新的燃料。象辭說君子「明慎用刑，而不留獄」——刑罰和訴訟應該是快速過去的事情，不能無限期拖延。監獄應該是臨時的住所，而不是久居之地。這個道理用在很多事情上都對——不該留的就不要留。
The Six Lines
If the wanderer busies himself with trivial things, he draws down misfortune upon himself. A wanderer should not demean himself or busy himself with inferior things along the way. The humbler and more defenseless your outward position, the more you should preserve inner dignity. A stranger mistaken if hoping to find friendly reception through jokes and buffoonery. The result will be only contempt and insulting treatment.
The wanderer comes to an inn. He has his property with him. He wins the steadfastness of a young servant. This wanderer is modest and reserved. Not losing touch with their inner being, they find a resting place. In the outside world, they don't lose the liking of other people, so all further them. They can acquire property and moreover win the allegiance of a faithful servant—a thing of inestimable value to a wanderer.
The wanderer's inn burns down. He loses the steadfastness of his young servant. Danger. A truculent stranger doesn't know how to behave properly. Meddling in affairs and controversies that don't concern them, they lose their resting place. Treating their servant with aloofness and arrogance, they lose the man's loyalty. When a stranger in a strange land has no one left on whom to rely, the situation becomes very dangerous.
The wanderer rests in a shelter. He obtains his property and an ax. My heart is not glad. A wanderer who knows how to limit desires outwardly, though inwardly strong and aspiring. Finding at least a place of shelter, succeeding in acquiring property, but not secure. Always on guard, ready to defend with arms. Hence not at ease—persistently conscious of being a stranger in a strange land.
He shoots a pheasant. It drops with the first arrow. In the end this brings both praise and office. Traveling statesmen would introduce themselves to local princes with the gift of a pheasant. You shoot one, killing it at the first shot. Thus you find friends who praise and recommend you, and in the end the prince accepts you and confers an office. If you know how to meet the situation and introduce yourself in the right way, you may find a circle of friends and a sphere of activity even in a strange country.
The bird's nest burns up. The wanderer laughs at first, then must needs lament and weep. Through carelessness he loses his cow. Misfortune. Loss of one's resting place. If heedless and imprudent when building the nest, this misfortune may overtake you. If you let yourself go, laughing and jesting, forgetting that you are a wanderer, you will later have cause to weep and lament. Through carelessness losing your cow—your modesty and adaptability—evil will result.
Artwork & Treatise
The Gulf Stream
Winslow Homer, 1899; reworked by 1906
American realist Winslow Homer depicts a Black sailor stranded on a dismasted boat surrounded by sharks in tropical waters. The man lies on the tilted deck, one arm trailing in the ocean, sugarcane stalks scattered around him. Behind, a waterspout twists across the horizon. The vessel drifts without anchor or destination, far from any shore. Homer painted this between 1899 and 1906 after extended time in the Bahamas, capturing the vulnerability of displacement. The sailor has survived the storm that destroyed his mast, but now floats in hostile territory without the means to navigate home.
This is Lǚ (旅), the Chinese hexagram of The Wanderer. The character originally referred to military units traveling in formation, later extending to any stranger passing through unfamiliar territory. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when Fire (Li) sits above Mountain (Gèn): flame on the mountain cannot remain fixed but must move across the landscape, finding temporary fuel before traveling onward. Homer's sailor embodies this precarious existence—the boat provides momentary rest but cannot sustain him indefinitely. He clings to wreckage between home and oblivion, belonging nowhere.
{artwork_reasoning}
The Judgment counsels: "The Wanderer. Success through smallness. Perseverance brings good fortune to the wanderer." The ancient text warns that the stranger lacks social capital to recover from errors—each action carries amplified risk. Homer's sailor demonstrates this principle: adrift without supplies, every movement matters. A wrong gesture might attract the circling sharks. Inaction means slow death from exposure. In Zhou Dynasty China, travelers existed outside the ritual networks that defined belonging. They couldn't participate in ancestral rites or local governance, moving through communities without connection. Classical commentaries note that even the sage may find himself in wanderer's position, displaced by political upheaval or necessary retreat.
The Image Text declares: "Fire on the mountain: the image of The Wanderer. Thus the superior man is clear-minded and cautious in imposing penalties, and protracts no lawsuits." Fire moves across the mountain, consuming brush before moving on—it establishes no permanent presence. The wanderer must travel light, maintaining inner dignity while adapting to diminished circumstances. Homer exhibited this painting in 1906, as millions of immigrants crossed oceans seeking new homes. Critics objected to the painting's ambiguous ending—Homer refused to show rescue or death, leaving the sailor suspended in the wanderer's permanent transit. In the hexagram sequence, The Wanderer follows Abundance: after the zenith comes displacement, the necessary journey away from fullness toward the unknown that begins the cycle again.
Yilin Verse
羅網四張，鳥无所翔。征伐困極，飢窮不食。
Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — Unchanging verse for 旅 (Lǚ)
Character-by-Character Breakdown
Classical Chinese text with pinyin and English meanings