坤Kun · Earth
In one sentence
It is not your turn to lead the charge right now. Follow the right person and do your supporting part well, and the result will be good.
This is the most yielding of the hexagrams: like the earth, it carries and cooperates. Rush to the front and you easily lose your way; follow the right person or direction and things go smoothly. Keep a low posture, work steadily, and do the supporting and the carrying-out properly. Don't compete for control. Patiently, over the long term, keep to your own role.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- This is not the time to take the lead or strike out on your own. Find a reliable person or direction to follow, do the executing and supporting solidly, and do not hurry to claim the credit. Be like the mare: gentle, yet going far and going steadily. Taking it slowly brings the better result.
- Love
- In this relationship, receiving and making room for the other person does more good than fighting over who decides. If you have no partner yet, do not rush to chase anyone; first get your own life onto solid ground and let the right person come closer. Going along with someone does not mean having no bottom line. What needs holding, still hold.
- Money
- It does not suit you to rush into a new venture or lead the way into risk. Keep to your proper income and follow reliable people and well-worn paths; the money comes slowly, but steadily. Build it up thick, like the earth, and do not let other people's speed throw off your own pace.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsThings go through in a big way, and the advantage lies in being like a mare: gentle, yet able to go far and go steadily. You have something to go and do: rush to the front and you will lose your way; follow behind and you will find someone to anchor you. Favorable. Go southwest and you gain companions; go northeast and you lose them. Settle your heart and stay true: good fortune.
The Tuan commentary
至哉坤元，萬物資生，乃順承天。坤厚載物，德合无疆；含弘光大，品物咸亨。牝馬地類，行地无疆，柔順利貞。君子攸行，先迷失道，後順得常。西南得朋，乃與類行，東北喪朋，乃終有慶。安貞之吉，應地无疆。
Perfect indeed is the origin that is Kun! All things owe their birth to it, and so it complies and receives heaven. Kun is thick and carries all things; its virtue matches what is without bound. It holds all within, broad, bright and great, and the kinds of things all have success. The mare is of the earth's kind; she travels the earth without bound. Yielding and compliant, "it is favorable to stay true". The noble one has somewhere to go: "going first, one gets lost" and loses the way; "following", one complies and finds the constant. "In the southwest, friends are gained": one travels with one's own kind. "In the northeast, friends are lost": yet in the end there is cause for rejoicing. The good fortune of "calmly staying true" answers to the earth's being without bound.
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
地勢坤，君子以厚德載物。
The earth's bearing is receptive: Kun (Earth). The noble one, with deep virtue, carries all things.
The lines
Six at the beginning
Text履霜，堅冰至。Treading on frost. Solid ice is on its way.In plain wordsWhen your foot steps on frost, you should know the days of solid ice are not far off. A bad sign has only just shown itself; guard against it early. More on this line →
Six in the second place
Text直方大，不習无不利。Straight, square, great. Without practice, there is nothing that is not favorable.In plain wordsUpright, square, generous. This is simply your nature; you don't need to study anything or work at anything deliberately, and whatever you do goes well. More on this line →
Six in the third place
Text含章可貞。或從王事，无成有終。Brilliance held within; one can stay true. If you serve in the king's affairs, claim no achievement, and see things through to the end.In plain wordsYou have talent but keep it in rather than showing it, and you can hold to that. If you do go out and work for someone, don't grab the credit. At the start no results will show, but in the end it turns out well. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text括囊，无咎无譽。A sack tied shut. No blame, no praise.In plain wordsTie the sack up tight. Say little and don't put yourself forward: no blame, and no fame either. Right now this much caution is exactly what is called for. More on this line →
Six in the fifth place
Text黃裳，元吉。A yellow lower garment. Supreme good fortune.In plain wordsWearing a yellow lower garment. You are in a high position yet modest and centered, yielding through and through. Great good fortune. More on this line →
Six at the top
Text龍戰于野，其血玄黃。Dragons fight in the open country. Their blood is dark and yellow.In plain wordsDragons are fighting to the death in the wilds, and the blood that flows is both dark blue and yellow. The yin side has grown so strong it takes on the yang head to head, and both are badly hurt. Misfortune. More on this line →
All sixes
Text利永貞。It is favorable to stay true forever.In plain wordsAll six lines change. The soft and weak side could not have held firm on its own; only by turning strong can it hold. Keeping to the right course for the long term is favorable. More on this text →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Kun belongs to the second pentad of Minor Snow, “Heaven's breath rises, earth's sinks” (November 27 to December 1, 2026). It is also one of the twelve sovereign hexagrams, standing for the tenth month of the traditional calendar: all six lines yin, yin at its height.
The twelve sovereign hexagrams → The 24 solar terms, 72 pentads and their hexagrams →