"The patterns of heaven; civil brilliance and stillness are the patterns of humanity." The hexagram represents the image of adornment because the two trigrams, upper and lower, have firm and yielding mutually adorning each other.
The lower trigram was originally The Creative (Heaven); a yielding line came to adorn its center and made it Li. The upper trigram was originally The Receptive (Earth); a firm line went to adorn its top and made it Gen.
Thus there is fire beneath the mountain, resting in civil brilliance to form Bi. Nothing under heaven can proceed without adornment; hence through Grace one can attain success.
"Yielding comes and adorns the firm, hence success": the yielding comes to adorn the firm and forms the image of civil brilliance; civil brilliance is why it is Bi. The dao of Grace can bring success, which truly derives from adornment bringing success.
"Distributing the firm upward to adorn the yielding, hence it is slightly advantageous to have somewhere to go": dividing the middle line of The Creative (Heaven) to go and adorn the top of Gen.
Affairs become more prosperous through adornment and can proceed through adornment; hence it is slightly advantageous to have somewhere to go. Now, that going can be advantageous is because there is substance.
The dao of adornment cannot increase substance itself; it merely adds pattern and color. Affairs become manifest and flourishing through pattern; hence it is slightly advantageous to have somewhere to go. "Success" means unhindered passage; "going" means advancing further.
The transformation of the two trigrams jointly constitutes the meaning of Bi, while the Tuan explains upper and lower separately, each governing one matter, because Li's brightness is sufficient to bring success, and adorning the yielding can also make minor advances.
"The patterns of heaven; civil brilliance and stillness are the patterns of humanity": continuing from the above, this means the mutual patterning of yin and yang, firm and yielding, is the pattern of heaven; resting in civil brilliance is the pattern of humanity.
"Stillness" means abiding in civil brilliance. Substance must have pattern, which is the natural principle. Principle must have polarity, which is the root of endless generation.
Where there is above, there is below; where there is this, there is that; where there is substance, there is pattern. The one cannot stand alone; when there are two, there is pattern. Who but one who knows the Dao could understand this?
The patterns of heaven are the principles of Heaven; the patterns of humanity are the Dao of humankind.
"Contemplating the patterns of heaven to observe the changes of the seasons":
The patterns of heaven refer to the constellations of the sun, moon, and stars, and the alternating changes of cold, heat, yin, and yang.
By contemplating their movements, one observes the transition of the four seasons. "Contemplating the patterns of humanity to transform and complete all under heaven":
The patterns of humanity are the ethical orders of human principles.
Contemplating the patterns of humanity to instruct and transform all under heaven so that the world completes its rites and customs is the sage's way of employing Bi.
The image of Bi is taken from fire beneath the mountain, and also from the hexagram change: yielding coming to adorn the firm, and firm going up to adorn the yielding.
In general, some hexagrams are formed by the meaning and images of their two trigrams: such as Difficulty at the Beginning (Zhūn) taking movement within danger and clouds and thunder, or Conflict taking firmness above and danger below with heaven and water moving contrarily.
Some take a single line as the source of the hexagram's formation: such as "the yielding attains position and upper and lower respond to it" in Small Taming, or "the yielding attains the honored position, great and central, and upper and lower respond to it" in Possession in Great Measure (Dà Yǒu).
Some take the two trigrams and also the meaning of waxing and waning: such as thunder in the earth for Return, or the mountain resting on the earth for Splitting Apart (Bō).
Some combine the two images with the interchange of two lines: such as Increase (Yì) taking decreasing the upper and increasing the lower, or Decrease taking decreasing the lower and increasing the upper.
Some form the hexagram by two images and then also adopt the meaning of the lines: such as the firm cutting through the yielding in Breakthrough (Resoluteness) (Guài), or the yielding meeting the firm in Coming to Meet (Gòu).
Some form the hexagram by function: such as entering water and bringing it up for The Well (Jǐng), or wood with fire above it for The Cauldron (Dǐng); The Cauldron also takes the shape of the hexagram as an image.
Some take physical shape as an image: such as thunder beneath the mountain for Nourishment, or "something in the mouth" for Biting Through (Shì Hé). These are the principles of hexagram formation.
Expressions like "firm above, yielding below" or "decreasing the upper and increasing the lower" mean firm residing above and yielding below, or decreasing above and increasing below, stated with respect to the formed hexagram, not meaning an ascending and descending within the hexagram itself.
As in Conflict and Innocence (The Unexpected) (Wú Wàng) saying "the firm comes," how could it come from the upper trigram?
Whenever a yielding line resides in the fifth position, it is said that "the yielding advances and moves upward"; yielding belongs below, yet it resides in the honored position, which is advancing upward—not meaning that it ascended from the lower trigram.
The transformations of hexagrams all originate from The Creative (Heaven) and The Receptive (Earth). Earlier scholars did not comprehend this and therefore claimed that Bi originally came from Peace (Tài).
How could The Creative (Heaven) and The Receptive (Earth) combine into Peace, and then Peace transform into something else?
The lower trigram Li was originally The Creative (Heaven), whose middle line transformed to become Li; the upper trigram Gen was originally The Receptive (Earth), whose top line transformed to become Gen.
Because Li is inside, it says "yielding comes"; because Gen is on top, it says "firm goes up"—not that it came up from the lower trigram.
The Creative (Heaven) and The Receptive (Earth) transform into the six children, and the Ba Gua double into the sixty-four, all originating from the transformations of The Creative (Heaven) and The Receptive (Earth).