The Receptive
- In Chinese
- 坤 kūn
- Above
- The Receptive, earth
- Below
- The Receptive, earth
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 2 means
Hexagram 2 is six divided lines, earth over earth. Legge reads the figure as “the ideal of subordination and docility”.
The judgment gives it the same attributes as hexagram 1, with a difference. Its firmness is “the firmness of a mare”.
Its advice is to follow and not to lead. Of the one who has to act, Legge has “if he take the initiative, he will go astray; if he follow, he will find his (proper) lord”.
The judgment ends well. Its last sentence is “If he rest in correctness and firmness, there will be good fortune.”
The judgment and the image
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。
THE RECEPTIVE brings about sublime success, Furthering through the perseverance of a mare. If the superior man undertakes something and tries to lead, He goes astray; But if he follows, he finds guidance. It is favorable to find friends in the west and south, To forego friends in the east and north. Quiet perseverance brings good fortune.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorablegood fortune it goes well
The image
地勢坤。君子以厚德載物。
The earth’s condition is receptive devotion. Thus the superior man who has breadth of character Carries the outer world.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment treats this hexagram as the one that receives and gives birth. In its words “All things owe to it their birth”, and it “receives obediently the influences of Heaven”. It adds that the hexagram “in its largeness, supports and contains all things”.
The same commentary explains the mare. It says “The mare is a creature of earthly kind.” Its power of moving on the earth has no limit, and it is “mild and docile, advantageous and firm”.
Legge adds that the mare is strong and docile, “but a creature for the service of man”. He does not read the image as a matter of sex. He writes that “it is not the sex of the animal which the writer has chiefly in mind”.
The judgment speaks of friends gained in one quarter and lost in another. The old commentary reads the gain as “walking with those of his own class”. Of the loss it says “but in the end there will be ground for congratulation”. Legge reads the whole passage as an instruction “to seek for others of the same principles and tendencies with himself to serve their common lord”. He closes with “But in quietness and firmness will be his strength.”
The image is the earth and its power to sustain. From it the commentary draws a rule for a person, who “with his large virtue supports (men and) things”.
Wilhelm gives the image in other words. He has “The earth’s condition is receptive devotion.” The superior man, a person “who has breadth of character”, carries the outer world.
The six lines
First line
履霜、堅冰至。
When there is hoarfrost underfoot, Solid ice is not far off.
no verdict
The line shows the first sign of cold. The commentary says “the cold (air) has begun to take form”, and that if it goes on according to its nature the hoarfrost “will come to strong ice”. Wilhelm has “Solid ice is not far off.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 24, Return
Second line
直、方、大，不習无不利。
Straight, square, great. Without purpose, Yet nothing remains unfurthered.
nothing that does not further everything is favorable
Legge sees in this line “the earth itself, according to the Chinese conception of it, as a great cube”. The commentary describes its movement as “from the straight (line) to the square”. The line works “without repeated efforts”, and the commentary calls the outcome “the brilliant result of the way of earth”. Wilhelm has “Without purpose”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 7, The Army
Third line
含章可貞，或從王事，无成有終。
Hidden lines. One is able to remain persevering. If by chance you are in the service of a king, Seek not works, but bring to completion.
no verdict
Excellence is kept under restraint and still held firmly. Legge calls this “the part of a minister or officer, seeking not his own glory, but that of his ruler”. The commentary adds that “at the proper time he will manifest it”. Wilhelm closes the line with “Seek not works, but bring to completion.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 15, Modesty
Fourth line
括囊，无咎无譽。
A tied-up sack. No blame, no praise.
no blame there is no mistake in it
The image is a sack tied up. Legge sees its subject “exercising a still greater restraint on himself than in paragraph 3”. The line earns neither blame nor praise, and the commentary names what is gained, that “through carefulness, no injury will be received”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 16, Enthusiasm
Fifth line
黃裳元吉。
A yellow lower garment brings supreme good fortune.
supreme good fortune it goes very well, from the root
This is the one line whose text speaks of good fortune, and it calls it great. Legge explains the image. Yellow is “the colour of the earth”, and “'The lower garment' is a symbol of humility”. He adds that “The fifth line is the seat of honour”. The commentary puts the good fortune down to the colour “being in the right and central place”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 8, Holding Together
Sixth line
龍戰于野，其血玄黃。
Dragons fight in the meadow. Their blood is black and yellow.
no verdict
The top line is a fight. The commentary says the course of the hexagram “is pursued to extremity”. Legge reads that “The humble subject of the divided line is transformed into a dragon, and fights with the true dragon, the subject of the undivided line”. Both bleed, and their blood has the colour of heaven and the colour of the earth.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 23, Splitting Apart
When all six lines move
Lasting perseverance furthers.
Hexagram 2 has a seventh text, for the case in which all six lines move and the hexagram becomes number 1. It says “If those (who are thus represented) be perpetually correct and firm, advantage will arise”.
Legge reads the change as a good one. His note says the paragraph supposes this hexagram changed into the first, “the result of which would be good”.
Hexagram 2 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 2 unchanging, what remains is the advice of the judgment, to follow and not to take the initiative, and the image of the earth, which asks for a virtue large enough to support people and things.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 2 mean?
It stands for the earth, which receives and supports. The judgment advises following and not taking the initiative, and it ends with “good fortune” for the one who rests “in correctness and firmness”.
What does hexagram 2 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 2 that is the advice to follow and not to lead, and the image of one who “with his large virtue supports (men and) things”.
What does hexagram 2 changing to 1 mean?
It is hexagram 2 with all six lines moving. That case has its own text, which asks for being “perpetually correct and firm” and says that “advantage will arise”.
What does hexagram 2 changing to 24 mean?
It is hexagram 2 with its first line moving. That line shows someone “treading on hoarfrost”, with the strong ice still to come, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 24.
What does hexagram 2 changing to 8 mean?
It is hexagram 2 with its fifth line moving. That line shows “the yellow lower garment” and speaks of “great good fortune”, and when it changes the hexagram becomes number 8.
How does hexagram 2 differ from hexagram 1?
Hexagram 2 is the opposite of hexagram 1, line by line. Legge notes that the judgment gives both the same attributes, “but with a difference”. The subject of hexagram 2 “must not take the initiative”, and the lord he finds by following is the subject of hexagram 1.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Khwăn in James Legge. The Receptive in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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