Modesty · Di Shan Qian
Modesty — the low ground that no flood can harm.
The traditional reading
Hexagram 15 is the leveling force that makes the high low and the low safe. True modesty is not weakness but a kind of equilibrium: act with restraint, put others at ease, and the natural course will be favorable. The modest person cannot be humiliated, because they never raised themselves to be struck down.
Structure of the hexagram
- Lower trigram: Mountain (Gen) · Earth
- Upper trigram: Earth (Kun) · Earth
- House: Lake (Dui) · Metal
- Text in the original Chinese: 地山谦