艮 Stillness
Upper trigram: Mountain (the mountain) · Lower trigram: Mountain (the mountain)
Stop — be still like a mountain; stillness now is strength.
Modern interpretation
Stop. Not every moment needs action, and this one needs rest, meditation, and firm boundaries. Be still like a mountain: nothing is lost by waiting, and everything is lost by thrashing. Stillness is the move.
The Judgment · 卦辞
艮其背，不获其身，行其庭，不见其人，无咎。
“When one's resting is like that of the back, and he loses all consciousness of self; when he walks in his courtyard, and does not see any (of the persons) in it, there will be no error.” — 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.
艮其趾，无咎。利永贞。
“The first line, divided, shows its subject keep- ing his toes at rest. There will be no error; but it will be advantageous for him to be persistently firm and correct.”
艮其腓，不拯其随，其心不快。
“The second line, divided, shows its subject keeping the calves of his legs at rest. He cannot help (the subject of the line above) whom he follows, and is dissatisfied in his mind.”
艮其限，列其夤，厉，熏心。
“The third line, undivided, shows its subject keeping his loins at rest, and separating the ribs (from the body below). The situation is perilous, and the heart glows with suppressed excitement.”
艮其身，无咎。
“The fourth line, divided, shows its subject keeping his trunk at rest. There will be no error.”
艮其辅，言有序，悔亡。
“The fifth line, divided, shows its subject keeping his jawbones at rest, so that his words are (all) orderly. Occasion for repentance will disappear.”
敦艮，吉。
“The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject devotedly maintaining his restfulness. There will be good fortune.”
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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