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HEXAGRAM 15 – Ch’ien – Modesty
Above K´UN THE RECEPTIVE, EARTH
Below KEN KEEPING STILL, MOUNTAIN
This hexagram is made up of the trigrams
· Ken, Keeping Still, mountain, and
· K’un.
The mountain
· is the youngest son of the Creative, the representative of heaven on earth.
It
· dispenses the blessings of heaven, the clouds and rain that
o gather round its summit, and thereafter
o shines forth radiant with heavenly light.
· This shows
o what modesty is and
o how it functions in great and strong men.
K’un, the earth, stands above.
Lowliness is a quality of the earth:
this is the very reason why it appears in this hexagram as exalted,
by being placed above the mountain.
This shows
how modesty functions in lowly, simple people:
they are lifted up by it.
THE JUDGEMENT
MODESTY creates success.
The superior man carries things through.
It is the law of heaven
· to make fullness empty and
· to make full what is modest;
when the sun is
· at its zenith, it must, according to the law of heaven, turn toward its setting, and
· at its nadir it rises toward a new dawn.
In obedience to the same law, the moon
· when it is full begins to wane,
and
· when empty of light it waxes again.
This heavenly law works itself out in the fates of men also.
It is the law of earth
· to alter the full
and
· to contribute to the modest.
· High mountains are worn down by the waters,
and
· the valleys are filled up.
It is the law of fate
· to undermine what is full
and
· to prosper the modest.
And men also
· hate fullness
and
· love the modest.
The destinies of men are subject to immutable laws that must fulfill themselves.
But man has it in his power to shape his fate,
according as his behavior exposes him to the influence
· of benevolent
or
· of destructive forces.
When a man
· holds a high position and
· is nevertheless modest,
he shines with the light of wisdom;
if he
· is in a lowly position
and
· is modest,
he cannot be passed by.
Thus the superior man can carry out his work to the end
without boasting of what he has achieved.
THE IMAGE
Within the earth, a mountain: The image Of MODESTY.
Thus the superior man
· reduces that which is too much, And
· augments that which is too little.
He
· weighs things and
· makes them equal.
The wealth of the earth in which a mountain is hidden is not visible to the eye,
because the depths are offset by the height of the mountain.
Thus
· high and low complement each other, and
· the result is the plain.
Here an effect
· that it took a long time to achieve, but
· that in the end seems easy of accomplishment and self-evident,
is used as the image of modesty.
The superior man does the same thing when he establishes order in the world;
he
· equalizes the extremes that are the source of social discontent
and thereby
· creates just and equable conditions. 1
