Hexagram 15: Modesty

謙 (Qiān)

Humility and modesty that leads to respect and success.

Overview

You cannot and should not stop, even after excellent results. In the earlier stages of your life you reached almost everything you hoped for. When you look back you can see how far you have come and what valuable experience you gained.

Some things may not have worked out the way you wanted, and you may have had to give something up. Do not be upset by that. Whatever happened was for your own good. Let that thought fill you with joy.

You already know that in life you can reach what you want through patience and persistence. You also have to learn to let go of things you cannot reach, or cannot reach yet. That is how you learn modesty.

Learn to live inside the flow of the river of life, which is always moving and changing direction. If you stand still, you break the flow of events around you. So learn to turn your attention away from what you have achieved. Be like a river, always moving forward.

That is the only way you will reach many peaks.

People around you

This sign sets no firm rules about the people around you. That part of life is yours to judge. Even so, try to get past your selfishness and take an interest in what other people are doing. Lately you have been going after your own goals in a very direct way, and that has thrown your thinking off balance. Take your attention off yourself and your problems. You are stuck in one place at the moment, and it is time to look for the way out.

Work and rest

Arrange time off at the first chance you get. You are so deep in your work that you no longer control your affairs. In fact they control you. Do not ruin your health and do not wear yourself down. Change the rhythm of your life, and do it now.

Your wish

You can go a long way toward your deepest wish, but the final goal is still out of reach.

Everything will depend on how calmly and openly you accept a delay in your plans, because this sign points to one. Live by the idea that everything happens for the best. That is the only way to see visible results.

This Overview is one traditional reading of the figure, offered as a prompt for reflection and perspective rather than a prediction of a fixed future. Where this material comes from.

New to the sequence? See how lines, trigrams and changing lines work, or cast your own reading with the three-coin method.

Structure

Read from the bottom upward, hexagram 15 is Earth over Mountain. Its two inner, or nuclear, trigrams are Thunder over Water. What the eight trigrams mean.

Upper trigram (lines 4–6): Kūn · Earth Receptive and devoted
Lower trigram (lines 1–3): Gèn · Mountain Still and stopping
Upper nuclear (lines 3–5): Zhèn · Thunder Arousing and moving
Lower nuclear (lines 2–4): Kǎn · Water Deep and dangerous