01 / THE EARLY TEXT
The words themselves.
An interpretive English translation. Read the translation notes. Six and nine name line types; positions run from bottom to top.
離：利貞。亨。畜牝牛，吉。
Li: A favorable determination. Success. Raising a cow is auspicious.
初九：履錯然，敬之无咎。
Nine at the beginning: Footsteps tangled together. Treat the matter with care; no blame.
六二：黃離，元吉。
Six in the second place: Yellow brightness. Great good fortune.
九三：日昃之離，不鼓缶而歌，則大耋之嗟，凶。
Nine in the third place: The brightness of the declining sun. If not beating an earthen pot and singing, then lamenting great old age. Inauspicious.
九四：突如其來如，焚如，死如，棄如。
Nine in the fourth place: Suddenly it comes; burning, dying, cast away.
六五：出涕沱若，戚嗟若，吉。
Six in the fifth place: Tears flowing, sorrow and lament. Auspicious.
上九：王用出征，有嘉折首，獲匪其醜，无咎。
Nine at the top: The king goes on campaign. A fine achievement: cutting off the chief and taking captives, not the whole company. No blame.
02 / A POSSIBLE CONTEXT
What might the question have been?
Can livestock, a fire, a force, or a relationship of dependence be maintained when circumstances suddenly change?
A possible setting
Li has associations with attachment and capture as well as the later trigram image of fire. The text brings together a cow, the setting sun, a sudden destructive arrival, and a royal campaign.
How the words respond
The judgment favors raising a cow. The first line calls for care amid tangled steps. The third contrasts singing with lament at sunset. The fourth is abruptly destructive. The final line distinguishes striking a leader from indiscriminate capture of the wider group.
The varied images should not all be reduced to the later symbolism of fire. Attachment and seizure remain possible parts of the reading.
This scenario adapts the Chinese edition's historical reading. It is a possible reconstruction, not an established single event or the only interpretation.