#56旅 Travel – Explore New Opportunities
旅 火山旅 离上艮下
This hexagram has a Fire trigram on top of the Mountain trigram. It is a fire on top of a mountain causing people to move. The hexagram name is “Travel”.
Description:
- 小亨: little flow of success or progress
- 旅贞吉: travel requires perseverance in righteousness which will bring good fortune.
Textual Commentary:
彖曰：旅，小亨，柔得中乎外，而顺乎刚，止而丽乎明，是以小亨，旅贞吉也。 旅之时义大矣哉！
Travel brings small success. The soft takes the central position at the outer trigram and follows the strong power around it. It stops resting on intelligence and hence it can bring small success or progress. Travel requires one to persevere in righteousness and it will bring good fortune. The teaching of Travel Hexagram on timing and rightness is great.
Pictorial Commentary: 象曰：山上有火，旅；君子以明慎用刑，而不留狱
Fire on the mountaintop is called Travel. A wise man exercises wisdom and care in the use of punishment. He does not delay the decisions resulting in the accumulation of cases.
Moral Teachings:
- Traveling is to find a new opportunity, a new place for home, and is not an activity to expect big gains. It is an exploration and hence involves many risks.
- We, therefore, need wisdom and carefulness. We are the guests and visitors to new places and hence should follow the established strong practices of the culture there.
- We need to persevere in righteousness and that will create trust and bring good fortune.
- We need to observe the times and situations and adapt to them.
- We need to be wise and careful in our decision-making and make them expediently without any delays.
- Travel in the old days was not for fun or holidays but for business. We could actually substitute ‘Travel’ for “Business Development in Foreign Markets” in this article. In this present world of globalized business, young men must learn to travel to foreign countries and look for new opportunities. This is definitely a hexagram that is very relevant to the present.
Stage 1 Begin Six: Travel with lots of treasures and showing off one’s wealth bring calamity unto oneself. 初六：旅琐琐，斯其所取灾。
The pictorial commentary explains that travel with treasures will cause the needy to come and rob creating a calamity. 象曰：旅琐琐，志穷灾也。
There are a number of interpretations because of the different meanings for 琐琐. One meaning is trivia and the other is the sound produced from the knocking of jades. So the first meaning is travel with too much attention to trivial details will cause calamity. This is not too convincing in my opinion. Hence I use the one that means the knocking sound of jades, implying a lot of treasures and money. The knocking sound also means showing off to attract attention to one’s wealth. Traveling to a new place with too much wealth and showing them off only attracts the wrong kind of attention and invites trouble.
Stage 2 Second Six: Travel and stay at an inn. He had his funds with him. He found a faithful young servant. 六二：旅即次，怀其资，得童仆贞。
The pictorial commentary explains that by having a faithful young servant one will have no complaints till the end. 象曰：得童仆贞，终无尤也。
In our travel, stage 1 tells us not to carry too much and not to show our wealth. Stage 2 tells us we must have sufficient funds with us. It is great that we are able to find and hire a young and faithful servant to help us. The major worry of us will be gone. We have someone who knows the culture to help us.
Stage 3 Third Nine: Travel and stay in an inn. A fire broke out. Lost the young servant. Truly a danger. 九三：旅焚其次，丧其童仆，贞厉。
The pictorial commentary explains the fire in the inn caused the injury. The Ill-treatment of the young servant is not right. 象曰：旅焚其次，亦以伤矣。 以旅与下，其义丧也。
It is important that we treat our servants well, especially the faithful ones. Ill-treating them is like setting fire to your own house. It is dangerous. We can take a stronger interpretation of this stage line. The ill-treatment of the servant causes the servant to be negligent in his work and therefore caused the fire by accident and even the loss of his own life. But the root cause is the master’s ill-treatment and the calamity also affects the master.
Stage 4 Forth Nine: Travel and stay at a temporary residence. Gains some funds and an ax. My heart is not happy. 九四：旅于处，得其资斧，我心不快。
The pictorial commentary explains the stay is temporary because we have not found the right position/place yet. Obtained some funds and the ax but he is still not satisfied. 象曰：旅于处，未得位也。 得其资斧，心未快也。
In our travel and our business development in this foreign place, we have established a good start. We stayed not in hotels but rented a place. Our business has some returns and enough to cover some operating expenses, represented by the ax. But it is still temporary. We have not made it to our home. We are still not satisfied. We want better results so that we can stay here for the longer term.
Stage 5 Fifth Six: Shoot at a pheasant and lose an arrow. But in the end, he received an honorable assignment. 六五：射雉一矢亡，终以誉命。
The pictorial commentary explains that receiving an honorable assignment means one has reached the top. 象曰：终以誉命，上逮也。
Aiming high and firing a shot. However, it missed the target. But, typical of I-Ching teaching, that is not the end yet. For our attempt, we got the attention of the top and finally, we won an honorable assignment. It could be a big contract from a customer or a promotion from the head office. We need to find a good target and make an attempt to reach it. The effort of just trying, while it cost us something (not very big, it is just an arrow), is worthwhile.
Stage 6 Top Six: The bird sets fire to its nest. The traveler first laughed but cried loudly later. Lost his cow at a far-off place(literally, a far-off place called Yi). It is a disaster. 上九：鸟焚其巢，旅人先笑后号啕。 丧牛于易，凶。
The pictorial commentary explains at the high point of travel, the right thing is to burn. Losing the cow at a far-off place is the end of it. It will never be heard again. 象曰：以旅在上，其义焚也。 丧牛于易，终莫之闻也。
The extreme point of travel is to make the foreign land our home and there will be no more travel. This is like burning our home nest. We first happily move there but later find out that we had made the wrong choice because we encounter an irrecoverable big loss (represented by the loss of the cow). Before we uprooted our home and moved to a foreign land, we must be doubly sure. Uprooting is a long-term consideration.
There are true stories that friends uprooted their homes to go to a foreign land like Australia or the US. After a few years, they could not stand the foreign culture and could not come back because they gave up their citizenship or house prices were too high for the effort.
Summary:
Traveling to explore new opportunities requires wisdom, carefulness, and expedient decision-making. Be happy with small gains and successes. Need to stay in righteousness and follow the culture of the new place.
Wisdom from the Stage Lines:
- Travel with care. Don’t bring too many funds and don’t show off your wealth else calamity.
- Travel with sufficient funds to find and hire good local staff to help us.
- Travel with taking good care of the local staff. Else, there could be a danger.
- Travel and stay in a rental house. We make enough to cover operating costs. Strife for better performance.
- Travel and try. Try to achieve a high target with some investment. The effort of trying will attract attention and success eventually.
- Travel and uprooted home. It is a big decision. Don’t decide too quickly or else disaster.
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