坤 The Receptive
Upper trigram: Earth (the earth) · Lower trigram: Earth (the earth)
Receptivity and patience — support, nurture, and follow through.
Modern interpretation
This is a time to receive rather than initiate. Let others take the spotlight while you build the foundation with quiet endurance. Strength here looks like devotion, flexibility, and the patience to let things mature.
The Judgment · 卦辞
元亨。利牝马之贞。君子有攸往，先迷，后得主，利。西南得朋，东北丧朋。安贞吉。
“Khwăn (represents) what is great and originating, penetrating, advantageous, correct and having the firmness of a mare. When the superior man (here intended) has to make any movement, if he take the initiative, he will go astray ; if he follow, he will find his (proper) lord. The advantageousness will be seen in his getting friends in the south-west, and losing friends in the north-east. If he rest in correctness and firmness, there will be good fortune.” — James Legge, The Yî King (1882)
The six lines · 爻辞
Read from the bottom line upward. Each line pairs the received Chinese text with Legge's English translation.
履霜，坚冰至。
“In the first line, divided, (we see its subject) treading on hoarfrost. The strong ice will come (by and by).”
直、方、大，不习，无不利。
“The second line, divided,(shows the attribute of) being straight, square, and great. (Its operation), without repeated efforts, will be in every respect advantageous.”
含章，可贞，或从王事，无成有终。
“The third line, divided, (shows its subject) keeping his excellence under restraint, but firmly maintaining it. If he should have occasion to engage in the king's service, though he will not claim the success (for himself), he will bring affairs to a good issue.”
括囊，无咎无誉。
“The fourth line, divided, (shows the symbol of) a sack tied up. There will be no ground for blame or for praise.”
黄裳，元吉。
“The fifth line, divided, (shows) the yellow lower garment. There will be great good fortune.”
龙战于野，其血玄黄。
“The sixth line, divided (shows) dragons fighting in the wild. Their blood is purple and yellow.”
利永贞。
“(The lines of this hexagram are all weak and divided, as appears from) the use of the number six. If those (who are thus represented) be perpetually correct and firm, advantage will arise.”
About changing lines
In a real I Ching reading, hexagrams are built by casting coins or yarrow stalks six times, bottom line first. Some lines come out “old” (unstable) — an old yin or old yang flips into its opposite, producing a second hexagram that shows where the situation is heading. The changing lines are the moving parts of your answer: read their individual line statements above, and they point to the direction of change.
Ask a question and cast the coins — free, with a plain-English interpretation grounded in the classical text.
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