I-Ching Hexagram 2
坤 The Receptive
Also known as Earth
Pure yin. The complement to the Creative: not passivity but devoted, spacious capacity — the soil in which every seed grows.
receptivity · devotion · earth
The Story
A widow in a dry province carried water each morning from a distant spring to her garden. She made no plan for what would grow; she simply watered every seed the wind brought her. Travelers mocked the wildness of her plot. But in the years of famine, her garden alone was green — barley, turnip, herbs she had never planted. "How did you know which seeds to choose?" they asked. "I did not choose," she said. "I only watered what arrived." The earth's strength is not in choosing but in receiving, and in keeping faith with what it receives.
The Judgment
Supreme success through the perseverance of a mare. The superior person has somewhere to go; if they take the lead, they go astray; if they follow, they find guidance. Gain friends in the west and south, forgo them in the east and north. Quiet perseverance brings good fortune.
The Image
The earth's condition is receptive devotion. Thus the superior person, with broad nature, carries all things.
Interpretation
Pure yin. The complement to the Creative: not passivity but devoted, spacious capacity — the soil in which every seed grows. The counsel is to follow rather than lead, to respond rather than initiate, to be fertile ground. This is not weakness; it is the strength of the vessel, the patience of the horizon.
Trigrams
The Six Lines
- First (Bottom) When there is hoarfrost underfoot, solid ice is not far off. Notice the first chill. Small beginnings reveal what the season is becoming.
- Second Straight, square, great. Without purpose, yet nothing remains undone. Act from natural rectitude; forced effort will only distort.
- Third Hidden lines. One can remain persevering. If one works for a ruler, seek not works but bring things to completion. Quiet, unobtrusive service; the credit belongs elsewhere.
- Fourth A tied-up sack. No blame, no praise. Prudent silence when the time is unfriendly — neither boast nor lament.
- Fifth A yellow lower garment brings supreme good fortune. Genuine modesty clothing inner power; the centre of the figure holds.
- Sixth (Top) Dragons fight in the meadow. Their blood is black and yellow. Yin overreaches into yang's domain and conflict breaks out; a warning against receptivity hardening into opposition.