Feng suggests fullness and abundance, but its lines do not simply celebrate prosperity. Instead, they repeatedly depict stars visible at noon, a broken right arm, and a large house with no one inside. At the very height of brightness, obscurity can prevent clear sight. Feng asks how flourishing conditions affect judgment.
丰 is hexagram 55 in the traditional King Wen sequence, with the symbol ䷶. Its lower trigram is 离☲ and its upper trigram is 震☳, traditionally associated with fire and thunder respectively. Count the lines from the bottom: 初九, 六二, 九三, 九四, 六五, 上六. A solid line is yang; a broken line is yin. Nine and six identify yang and yin in the line labels; they do not add extra lines.
Line structure (bottom to top): 1 0 1 1 0 0
Six-line figure, displayed top to bottom; line numbering starts at the bottom.
━━━━ ━━━━ 上六
━━━━ ━━━━ 六五
━━━━━━━━━ 九四
━━━━━━━━━ 九三
━━━━ ━━━━ 六二
━━━━━━━━━ 初九
The judgment
豐：亨。王假之，勿憂，宜日中。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: Abundance: favorable progress. The king reaches it. Do not worry; it is fitting to be like the sun at noon.
Legge understands Feng as abundance and prosperity: after a king reaches this condition, he should illuminate things like the midday sun. This article retains the ancient ruling context rather than identifying the king’s situation directly with a reader’s imminent wealth.
A modern reflection is to use resources where they are genuinely needed and keep information clear when circumstances allow more to be done. “Do not worry” does not ban concern; it suggests avoiding useless fear simply because abundance can change.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
Interpretation in the Ten Wings
The Commentary on the Judgment and the Commentary on the Images belong to the Yi Zhuan, the commentaries usually called the “Ten Wings.” Here their explanations are kept distinct from the judgment and line texts, before turning to modern applications for study.
The Commentary on the Judgment speaks both of acting with brightness and of the sun declining after noon and the full moon waning, showing that fullness is also subject to change. The Commentary on the Images connects thunder and lightning together with deciding lawsuits and imposing punishments, retaining an ancient judicial setting.
This article takes only the direction of careful discernment into everyday judgment. The hexagram cannot establish guilt or prescribe punishment. Recognizing change can encourage maintenance of cooperation and channels of information rather than repeated prophecies of inevitable decline.
初九 · Mutual cooperation matters more than occupying the whole stage alone
遇其配主，雖旬无咎，往有尚。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: Meeting a matching counterpart: although equal, there is no blame. Going forward brings esteem.
配主 is a matching counterpart. Legge reads 旬 as equality or equivalence and considers mutual assistance an important condition for sustaining abundance.
When an achievement requires contributions from several people, recognize their different expertise. Meeting someone equally capable need not become only a contest over who outshines whom. Ask whether working together genuinely improves the undertaking.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
六二 · When information is obscured, direct explanation may not be accepted at once
豐其蔀，日中見斗，往得疑疾，有孚發若，吉。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: The covering is abundant; the Dipper is seen at noon. Going brings suspicion and resentment. Sincerity that opens the way is favorable.
蔀 is a covering. Seeing the Dipper at noon reverses the expected relation of light and darkness. Legge explains suspicion and sincerity through a superior whose understanding is obscured.
If a problem you raise is not understood for now, supply clear facts and communicate appropriately. But sincerity alone is not guaranteed to change everyone, and you should not therefore take on an unlimited duty to explain.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
九三 · Obscured judgment can also impair the ability to act
豐其沛，日中見沬，折其右肱，无咎。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: The screen is abundant; faint stars are seen at noon. The right arm is broken. No blame.
Heavy covering, faint stars visible in daylight, and a broken right arm are joined. Legge reads a capable person lacking suitable cooperation and therefore unable to put ability into practice.
A modern analogy is missing key information that prevents the person responsible for execution from completing the work. “No blame” does not mean harm is absent. Nor is it a forecast of bodily injury or a guarantee that injury needs no attention.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
九四 · Identifying problems together can reduce isolation
豐其蔀，日中見斗，遇其夷主，吉。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: The covering is abundant; the Dipper is seen at noon. Meeting a like-minded counterpart is favorable.
This line repeats the covering and the Dipper at noon, but adds meeting a similar counterpart. Legge links this with cooperation from the first line; cooperation changes the outcome.
When everyone holds incomplete information, check the facts together rather than letting each person assume that only they are struggling. Cooperation is valuable when it increases visibility, not when it creates a circle of people who only agree with one another.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
六五 · Let people who understand the matter enter the discussion
來章，有慶譽，吉。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: Excellence comes, bringing celebration and praise. Favorable.
來章 briefly describes the arrival of brightness or excellence. Legge interprets it as attracting people of ability and insight, thereby receiving praise.
When responsible for a well-resourced project, actively hear specific opinions and bring those doing the work into discussion. A person in a higher position need not pretend to possess every answer already.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
上六 · An enlarged shell can deepen isolation
豐其屋，蔀其家，窺其戶，闃其无人，三歲不觌，凶。
Original editorial rendering, not a quotation from Legge: The house is made grand, the household screened off. Looking through the doorway, all is silent, with no one there. No one is seen for three years. Unfavorable.
The house is large yet screened off; looking through the door reveals no one, with no sight of anyone for three years. Legge reads a severe condition of isolation and lost assistance.
If an organization keeps adding facilities and display while hearing users less and less, examine the purpose of expansion. Three years is not a real-world countdown to decline, and an empty house cannot predict a family’s experience.
Sources: zhouyi-55, legge1882-55
Keeping a clear head after a successful event
Original modern scenario
A cultural festival attracts considerable attention, and the organizer plans more sessions. Instead of looking only at registration totals, she checks whether participants can actually find the venues and understand the arrangements, and whether volunteers are overburdened.
Feedback shows that announcements are scattered and some performances are obscured by noisy publicity. The group invites on-site workers into the discussion, simplifies explanations, and moves resources to genuinely congested stages of the event.
The event can still expand, but with a clearer basis. Here, Feng reminds us that abundant conditions should illuminate more needs rather than move organizers further from what is actually happening.
Avoiding misreadings
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Feng guarantees neither wealth and prosperity nor their inevitable subsequent decline. Change must be assessed through real conditions.
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Stars at noon, the right arm, and three years belong to classical imagery. They are not predictions of astronomical events, illness, accidents, or deadlines.
Three exercises
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In something going well, find one problem most easily hidden by the good news.
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Check conditions with the people actually carrying out or using the work, not only those closest to you.
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Examine whether an expansion plan improves the actual experience or merely makes the outward appearance grander.
Related reading
Dayou — Great Possession (hexagram-14): Dayou concerns good use and responsibility when one has much; Feng focuses more on clarity, obscurity, and cooperation amid abundance. Plentiful resources and clear judgment do not automatically arrive together.
When reading Feng, ask: does the current attention and abundance help me see more people, or hide what most needs to be seen?
Sources
Source: zh · hexagram-55 · SHA256 88f8bb9206ebba53ede125b34bc42a236e7ce70425b4e259970b6ec4904fa708
Translation status: complete_translation_pending_review; independent editorial review: pending_translation_review; human native-speaker/expert review: not performed; unpublished.