Hexagram 15 Qian (Modesty, ䷎): Earth over Mountain—The Only All-Auspicious Hexagram
In the sixty-four hexagrams, Qian (modesty, ䷎) is the fifteenth—the only hexagram whose six lines are all auspicious. The judgment: “Modesty—success. The junzi has an ending.” It states the worth of humility: hold the humble way, and the way can go through; the good person finishes well. The image is earth below, mountain above—“mountain inside earth”: strength inside, modest bearing outside. The core is “bei yi zi mu”—reining yourself in with humility, not flaunting talent or hogging credit, letting virtue feed the heart. This ties to Confucius’s reading of the Yi and to character as the root of conduct.
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