Ch'ien / Modesty

above:K'un The Receptive, Earth
below:K^ en Keeping Still, Mountain

Khien indicates progress and success. The superior man, (being humble as it implies), will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).

Overall Meaning

Modesty, the symbol of humility

An essay on humility rightly follows that on abundant possessions. The third line, which is a whole line amid five others divided, occupying the topmost place in the lower trigram, is held by the Khang-hsi editors and many others to be 'the lord of the hexagram', the representative of humility, strong, but abasing itself. There is nothing here in the Text to make us enter farther on the symbolism of the figure. Humility is the way to permanent success.