2 坤 Kūn Earth

This site's reading

卦辭 The Judgment gives Earth the same marks as Heaven, 元亨, then adds the mare: 利牝馬之貞, the firmness of a mare, strong and yet led. The noble person who moves first goes astray and who follows finds a master; friends are gained in the south-west and lost in the north-east; rest in firmness and it is good. The counsel is to take the second place well.

彖 The commentary matches Heaven's "all things take their start" with Earth's "all things take their birth" (萬物資生): the one begins, the other brings forth, by receiving the sky. Earth is thick and carries things; the mare belongs to it and walks it without limit.

大象 The Image: the earth lies as it lies (地勢坤), and the noble person, with generous virtue, carries things (厚德載物). Heaven's line is effort; this one is capacity.

爻 The lines: frost underfoot, and hard ice coming; straight, square and great, right without rehearsal; excellence kept under restraint, finishing another's work without claiming it; a sack tied shut, neither blame nor praise; the yellow lower garment, greatly good; and at the top dragons fighting in the wild, their blood dark and yellow, the one place where yielding has pushed too far. All six changing: lasting firmness is the advantage.

Written from the text above and checked against it by Lun (2026-10-24). It is a way of reading the hexagram, not a prediction.

The text, with Legge

Judgment 卦辭

The six lines

1. Line 1 初六

   履霜，堅冰至。

   lǚ shuāng, jiān bīng zhì.

   In the first line, divided, (we see its subject) treading on hoarfrost. The strong ice will come (by and by). (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   履霜堅冰，陰始凝也。馴致其道，至堅冰也。

   lǚ shuāng jiān bīng, yīn shǐ níng yě. xún zhì qí dào, zhì jiān bīng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 24 復 Fù.

2. Line 2 六二

   直方大，不習无不利。

   zhí fāng dà, bù xí wú bù lì.

   The second line, divided, (shows the attribute of) being straight, square, and great. (Its operation), without repeated efforts, will be in every respect advantageous. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   六二之動，直以方也。不習无不利，地道光也。

   liù èr zhī dòng, zhí yǐ fāng yě. bù xí wú bù lì, dì dào guāng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 7 師 Shī.

3. Line 3 六三

   含章，可貞。或從王事，无成有終。

   hán zhāng, kě zhēn. huò cóng wáng shì, wú chéng yǒu zhōng.

   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. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   含章可貞，以時發也。或從王事，知光大也。

   hán zhāng kě zhēn, yǐ shí fā yě. huò cóng wáng shì, zhī guāng dà yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 15 謙 Qiān.

4. Line 4 六四

   括囊，无咎无譽。

   kuò náng, wú jiù wú yù.

   The fourth line, divided, (shows the symbol of) a sack tied up. There will be no ground for blame or for praise. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   括囊无咎，慎不害也。

   kuò náng wú jiù, shèn bù hài yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 16 豫 Yù.

5. Line 5 六五

   黃裳，元吉。

   huáng cháng, yuán jí.

   The fifth line, divided, (shows) the yellow lower garment. There will be great good fortune. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   黃裳元吉，文在中也。

   huáng cháng yuán jí, wén zài zhōng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 8 比 Bǐ.

6. Line 6 上六

   龍戰于野，其血玄黃。

   lóng zhàn yú yě, qí xuè xuán huáng.

   The sixth line, divided, (shows) dragons fighting in the wild. Their blood is purple and yellow. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   龍戰于野，其道窮也。

   lóng zhàn yú yě, qí dào qióng yě.

   Changing, this line leads to 23 剝 Bō.

7. All lines 用六

   利永貞。

   lì yǒng zhēn.

   (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. (Legge, 1882)

   The Image 小象

   用六永貞，以大終也。

   yòng liù yǒng zhēn, yǐ dà zhōng yě.

Words that came from it

Phrases a billion people use today began as clauses of this hexagram.

厚德載物 hòu dé zài wù

a deep character carries all things, as the earth does. The second half of that pair; the two together are the most quoted eight characters of the book. From the Image 大象: 厚德載物.

履霜堅冰 lǚ shuāng jiān bīng

treading on frost, hard ice is coming. Small signs announce large consequences; quoted about early warnings of every kind. From line 1: 履霜，堅冰至.

In history

The 左傳 and 國語, the chronicles of the sixth to fifth centuries BC, record real casts of the Changes and what came of them. One of them gave this hexagram.

The chronicles' diviners read from oracle texts of their own time; where their words match our clause text the note says so, and where they do not, it says that. None of this is a claim that the text foretold the event.

In the calendar

In the Han dynasty's 卦氣 tradition, which lays the hexagrams over the year, 坤 is one of the twelve sovereign hexagrams 消息卦: it governs the month that begins at 小雪, light snow, and runs until 冬至 (winter solstice), the tenth month of the traditional year, the month of 亥. All six lines yin; the dark is complete and the return is next.

The calendar is a later tradition about the hexagrams, not part of the text above.

Related hexagrams

• 1 乾 Qián, Heaven its pair in the King Wen sequence
• 2 坤 Kūn, Earth its nuclear hexagram 互卦, lines 2 to 4 under 3 to 5
• 1 乾 Qián, Heaven its opposite 錯卦, every line flipped
• 2 坤 Kūn, Earth its inverse 綜卦, the figure turned upside down

Where the name comes from

Legge's note (1882)

Legge's title for the hexagram: .

II. The same attributes are here ascribed to Khwăn, as in the former hexagram to Khien;—but with a difference. The figure, made up of six divided lines, expresses the ideal of subordination and docility. The superior man, represented by it, must not take the initiative; and by following he will find his lord,—the subject, that is of Khien. Again, the correctness and firmness is defined to be that of ‘a mare,’ ‘docile and strong,’ but a creature for the service of man. That it is not the sex of the animal which the writer has chiefly in mind is plain from the immediate mention of the superior man, and his lord. That superior man will seek to bring his friends along with himself to serve his ruler. But according to the arrangement of the trigrams by king Wăn, the place of Khwăn is in the south-west, while the opposite quarter is occupied by the yang trigram Kăn, as in Figure 2, Plate III. All that this portion of the Thwan says is an instruction to the subject, of the hexagram to seek for others of the same principles and tendencies with himself to serve their common lord. But in quietness and firmness will be his strength. The symbolism of the lines is various. Paragraph 2 presents to us the earth itself, according to the Chinese conception of it, as a great cube. To keep his excellence under restraint, as in paragraph 3, is the part of a minister or officer, seeking not his own glory, but that of his ruler. Paragraph 4 shows its subject exercising a still greater restraint on himself than in paragraph 3. There is an interpretation of the symbolism of paragraph 5 in a narrative of the Ȝo-Kwan, under the 12th year of duke Khâo, B.C. 530. ‘Yellow’ is one of the five ‘correct’ colours, and the colour of the earth. ‘The lower garment’ is a symbol of humility. The fifth line is the seat of honour. If its occupant possess the qualities indicated, he will be greatly fortunate. See the note on the sixth line of hexagram 1. What is there said to be ‘beyond the proper limits’ takes place here ‘in the wild.’ The humble subject of the divided line is transformed into a dragon, and fights with the true dragon, the subject of the undivided line. They fight and bleed, and their blood is of the colour proper to heaven or the sky, and the colour proper to the earth. Paragraph 7 supposes that the hexagram Khwăn should become changed into Khien;—the result of which would be good.

Sources

• Chinese text: 周易, 維基文庫, page (revision 2404999); the text is public domain, the site's edits CC BY-SA 4.0.
• English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Oxford 1882 (public domain), where this hexagram is “Khwăn”.
• Glyph images: 小學堂 字形演變, Academia Sinica (CC0 1.0).
• Pinyin: Unihan (Unicode License v3) with this site's readings for the classical cases. English gloss, relations, the idiom glosses, the English of the chronicle passages and the plain reading: this site.