Friday, January 16th, 2026, Lunar November 28th

Today's Energy Guide

Today's hexagram:Leaving for Fire（䷝）

The Book of ChangesItemthirtyHexagram: Upward departure (fire) and downward departure (fire), the separation of light and light is eternal.

The revelation of hexagrams: The core of the Li hexagram lies in'Light' and 'attachment'. The original meaning of 'li' in ancient times is attachment, just as flames need to attach to firewood, and light needs to attach to a carrier to manifest and pass on. The hexagram symbolizes the overlapping of two fires, just like the alternating rise and fall of the sun and moon, and the continuous brightness. The brightness does not exist in isolation, but needs to be manifested in the attached form to demonstrate its value; The development of all things also relies on reasonable dependence - individual dependence on the collective, cultural dependence on inheritance, and civilization dependence on the right path. It not only symbolizes the continuity and inheritance of light, but also emphasizes the need to adhere to the right path in order to achieve the state of light shining brightly. At the same time, the Li hexagram also demonstrates the dialectical thinking of "the extreme will inevitably decline, and the extreme will inevitably reverse", warning people to face the cyclical development of things, guard against arrogance and impatience during the peak of brightness, and accept them calmly during the decline of brightness, achieving a balance between movement and stillness, firmness and flexibility.

The moral style of a gentleman, the moral grass of a petty person. The wind on the grass will wither.

————The Analects: Yan Yuan

today in historyEdward Gibbon and his representative works

The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empireone thousand seven hundred and ninety-four

yearonemoonsixteenDay, UKfamoushistorianEdward·YoshimotoPassed away.HeInfluenced by classical education in his early years, he read extensively and traveled throughout Europe,1764 I had the idea of writing a history of the decline of the Roman Empire while paying tribute to ancient relics in Rome. Afterwards, he devoted himself to research for more than 20 years, experiencing ups and downs in his political career and never stopping writing.His representative work "The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" consists of six volumes, which uses a grand narrative to sort out the entire process of the Roman Empire from its peak to decline, integrating multidimensional analysis such as politics, economy, and culture.

Yoshimoto broke through the traditional chronological framework of historiography, integrating the spirit of rational criticism into historical research, abandoning the religious theological view of history, objectively analyzing the deep causes of the decline of empires, and creating a new paradigm for modern historiography research. This work not only laid the foundation for the study of Roman history in later generations, but also influenced a group of historians such as Macaulay and Toynbee. Its rigorous research methods and grand historical perspective are still classic models in the Western historical community today.

吉本突破传统史学的编年框架，将理性批判精神融入历史研究，摒弃宗教神学史观，客观剖析帝国衰亡的深层动因，开创近代史学研究的新范式。这部著作不仅为后世罗马史研究奠定基础，更影响了麦考莱、汤因比等一众史学家，其严谨的考据方法与宏大的历史视野，至今仍是西方史学界的经典范本。