The 64 hexagrams · Hexagram 2

What does I Ching hexagram 2, Earth, mean?

The judgment

坤：元亨。利牝馬之貞。君子有攸往，先迷後得主。利西南得朋，東北喪朋。安貞，吉。Earth: great success. It pays to hold firm as a mare does. When the noble person sets out, they first lose the way and later find a guide. It pays to find friends in the south-west and to lose them in the north-east. Staying calm and steady brings good fortune.Zhou Yi 周易, 坤, judgment. Source

The image

地勢坤，君子以厚德載物。The lie of the land is Earth. The noble person carries things with generous character.Zhou Yi 周易, 坤, image. Source

The six lines

Read from the bottom up. In a cast, only the lines that move are read, and they turn the hexagram into another one. Here they are in the original; a reading translates the moving lines and reads them for the question asked.

1. First line初六：履霜，堅冰至。
2. Second line六二：直方大，不習无不利。
3. Third line六三：含章，可貞。或從王事，无成有終。
4. Fourth line六四：括囊，无咎无譽。
5. Fifth line六五：黃裳，元吉。
6. Top lineLeft out: this line speaks of a subject this site doesn't read.

坤 also has a seventh text, read when all six lines move: 用六：利永貞。

The Chinese is the received text of the Zhou Yi; the English is ours. Lines and images that speak of punishments, prisons, illness or money are left out. For entertainment and self-reflection.

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