What this change means
White adornment, plain and unpainted: the top line moves, and it's the heart of this reading. Your true worth isn't on the surface. It's the jewel that lives within you, and others will recognize it. No fault comes of this simplicity. As the upper Mountain becomes Earth, Good Manners turns into 36 Darkness, light sinking into the ground. The resulting hexagram describes a hard time, perhaps among the wrong people, when it's wiser not to show your light openly. The two fit closely. When outward display could be risky, the plain white of the top line is protection. Keep your integrity, go unnoticed if you need to, and trust that your inner worth doesn't depend on being seen. Hard times pass, and what's real inside you remains.
What to read, in order
Marked ● is what Zhu Xi's tradition puts at the center for this number of moving lines.
- Line 6 of 22 Good Manners
Your true worth isn't on the outside: it lies in the wonderful jewel that lives within you, and others will recognize it.
White adornment. No fault.
- The judgment of 22 Good Manners
It's a time to be kind and courteous and to use good manners with others if you want good results in what you undertake. What might seem superficial at another time leads you to success now. It's a time to handle everyday matters, not great undertakings.
Success. In small things, it is favorable to have somewhere to go.
- The judgment of 36 Darkness
It's a dark time: circumstances force you to live alongside the wrong people. If you know how to protect yourself, hold on to your integrity, and go unnoticed, without openly showing your light and your talents, you'll stay safe until better times come. However hard they seem, hard times pass too.
Constancy in hardship is favorable.
The trigrams
The way back
36 Darkness → 22 Good Mannersline 6
Other transformations of Good Manners
Make your own cast
The answer changes with the question. Toss the coins and see which lines move for you.