A Change Circle member recently mentioned getting a whole series of readings with 15 as relating hexagram, so I thought I’d dig in and explore how it works there, as the background to a reading…
Integrity, humility…
The name of Hexagram 15, qian 謙, means humility – or perhaps integrity, or authenticity, or modesty. The character is formed from components meaning ‘speech’ and a ‘phonetic’ component jian 兼 (which I think is meaningful) that shows a hand grasping two stalks of grain together, and means ‘combine, connect, unite’.
Some translators, noticing that humility/ integrity/ authenticity/ modesty calls out in lines 2 and 6, with a verb that specifically means the call of a bird or animal, have suggested that qian 謙 is actually a loan character. Originally, they say, the component on its left-hand side would have been not ‘speech’ but ‘rodent’ or ‘bird’. Then the hexagram would be about a uniting rodent, a Korean Great Grey Hamster (described here), or a ‘wedwing bird’ (whose story LiSe tells here).
It seems to me that uniting, combining and holding things together is the key. Humility is uniting words: words that hold closely to the truth. Or perhaps we should be thinking of a bird that can only fly when joined with its mate, or a rodent that meets you face to snout and unites you with the reality of your own animal self.
In readings, I’ve found Hexagram 15 points to a need for true realism: no exaggeration, no colourful story-telling, but simply reckoning with what there is. Its inner trigram mountain lends it a sense of inward solidity and quiet resourcefulness – translating outward into generous action, as hidden bedrock quietly becomes subsoil.
At the intersection of these ideas – closeness with reality, open service on a solid foundation – there’s the noble one in the Oracle text, getting things done:
‘Integrity creates success.
The noble one completes it.’
I don’t think I have much to add to what I wrote about this one in my book:
‘…the noble one [can] bring whatever work presents itself to completion. Since she is not overly full of herself, she has space for the real world; she isn’t hampered by an excess or by a lack of confidence. Since she isn’t caught up in a personal story, and doesn’t identify her work with her worth, she is free to do what needs to be done and move on.’
So how does this manifest when Integrity is the relating hexagram? Let’s start with some single-line changes.
Lines changing to 15
36.1
‘Brightness hidden, flying away,
His wings hanging down.
The noble one is on the move,
For three days, eats nothing,
Has a direction to go.
Those in authority have something to say’
Hexagram 36 is Brightness Hiding or Brightness Wounded: a time when your light goes unrewarded, may even attract persecution, and is really safest hidden away under a bushel. Here at the beginning of this story, the noble one may have suffered his first set-back or rejection, and it’s time to disengage – to remove himself from any kind of ambition or involvement. Those in authority may have plenty to say, but this makes no difference to the noble one’s chosen direction: he will pursue his own, quite separate purpose.
The first step into Brightness Hiding, towards keeping your own light safe, is not to dilute or compromise it by mixing – to clarify your own moral sense and go on your own journey, not confusing it with what anyone else thinks or says.
It seems to me that the confidence to do this – and from such a lowly position – has its foundation in Integrity:
‘Integrity creates success.
The noble one completes it.’
Hexagram 36 cannot expect to find recognition or status from the regime; Hexagram 15 has no interest in or need for such things. So the noble one can go his own way without fuss, wings drooping, and perhaps – to judge from the fan yao, 15.1 – with a quiet sense of beginning a solo adventure.
‘At one in integrity, the noble one
Uses this to cross the great river.
Good fortune.’
46.2
‘True and confident,
And so it is fruitful to make the summer offering.
No mistake.’
Hexagram 46 is Pushing Upward, looking to the summit, asking where it can go or what it can create, one small step at a time. At line 2, it’s looking to connect with something higher, and the natural small step towards connection is the modest summer offering, yue.
A summer offering is necessarily small: not until later in the year would you have the resources for something more lavish. But made with ‘truth and confidence’, it is fruitful – not a mistake, not inadequate. This is part of the message of Hexagram 46: that small steps are valuable, and you don’t skip over them.
The connection to Hexagram 15 lies in the humble nature of the offering, and also its proportionality. Here’s an excerpt from ‘steps through Hexagram 46‘:
As an offering, yue was made of plant matter only (no ‘great sacrificial animals’ here!), and was proportionate to your rank
It helps to think of rank as not just an empty bureaucratic status-label, but in its ideal sense of a true measure of your personal capability. Then this becomes an offering that’s naturally proportional to what you can give – and you can see the connection to Hexagram 15, Integrity. With a completely clear sense of yourself – both your limitations and your potential – you can make a true yue offering. It’s your personal call to the spirits (see the fan yao, 15.2) and you – not any external standard – are its measure.
36.1 disconnected from ‘the authorities’, but this line connects. It can be a reminder to humanise things, or to see a situation in terms of simple relationship, not of achieving goals. (You may not be able to solve the technical snafu, but your members will still appreciate it if you send them an email to explain what’s happening.)
2.3
‘Containing a thing of beauty: this allows constancy.
Maybe engaged in a king’s business –
Without accomplishment, there is completion.’
In Hexagram 2, Earth, the noble one embarks on a journey, seeking a leader and a place where she can be of service. At line 3, perhaps she has found this – but with nothing to show for it.
To ‘contain’ is to hold in the mouth, hold inside, and also to conceal, not express. And a ‘thing of beauty’ is a jade insignium, hence something beautiful and a bright distinguishing mark. It’s quite odd, quite striking, that such a thing should be hidden away.
The contrast of ‘accomplishment’ with ‘completion’ develops the same theme. When something is ‘accomplished’, the work is perfected: the battle won, the hunt successful or the harvest gathered in. The finished work is there for all to see. ‘Completion’, though, just means reaching an end: the end of a period of time, or originally of a length of silk thread.
So with the bright sign of identity hidden away, and completion without accomplishment, there’s an emphasis on concealed value rather than visible achievement you can point to. The ending may be unimpressive, or a bit of a mess, but you need to concentrate on the enduring inner value. The ‘thing of beauty’ is jade, which endures unchanging for millennia. What’s outside is shifting and malleable; what’s inside is solid. It’s the same structure as Hexagram 15’s outer earth and inner mountain.
62.4
‘No mistake.
Not going past, meeting it.
Going on is dangerous, must be on guard.
Do not use ever-flowing constancy.’
This line of Small Exceeding (or ‘Small Going Past’) might be best understood in contrast with line 3, changing to Hexagram 16:
‘Not going past, he defends himself.
Someone following may strike him down.
Pitfall.’
Line 3 is dug in behind solid ramparts, defending one direction while the threat comes from the other. It’s bound up with Hexagram 16: imagining, preparing, anticipating, dwelling largely in the imagined future, and unfortunately unaware of the present. British readers might think of the pantomime joke, ‘He’s behind you!‘
But line 4 is ‘on guard’, which means he has his weapon in hand and can look around. He doesn’t go on; he doesn’t follow precedent; he is willing to change.
The 15-ness of this lies in ‘meeting it’: instead of living in an imaginary world, this one gets the message, makes the connection – he unites with reality. So unlike 36.1 or 2.3, he does need to be outwardly-focussed, attuned to what’s going on out there. It seems the effects of 15 have changed now we’re in the outer trigram.
39.5
‘Greatly limping; partners come.’
This is one of my favourite lines. It offers reassurance that when things are hardest, there will be help – often, though not always, from your fellow humans.
It may be a line for Yu the Great, conquering the great floods by welcoming help – indeed, 39 in general and this line in particular encourage actively looking out for allies. Hexagram 15 knows that the important thing is that the work gets done, not your own personal role. Hexagram 15 has very, very often come up to remind me that no, it actually isn’t all down to me; I just need to do my own work.
52.6
‘Great-hearted stilling,
Good fortune.’
This is one of those tremendously simple lines where a lot depends on translation. What kind of stilling is this, exactly?
- Wilhelm: ‘noblehearted’
- Lynn: ‘simple honesty’
- Deng Ming Dao: ‘deep and honest’
- LiSe: ‘magnanimous’
- Bradford Hatcher: ‘authentic’
(The dictionary suggests that dun 敦 originally means something densely packed, hence by extension abundance and generosity. But the word also comes with scads of apparently-unrelated meanings and pronunciations.)
By changing, this line opens up the top of the hexagram, changing the upper trigram from mountain to earth, so it becomes outwardly open (great-hearted), inwardly solid (stilling). Magnanimity suggests the quality of earth; authenticity and honesty are a reminder of Integrity as a whole. Line 6 can be the sage’s line – the one at one remove from the action, enjoying (in this hexagram, at least) an overview. In readings, this line tends to point to witnessing rather than reacting, having a broad understanding and not asking anyone to be other than they are.
Multi-line changes
As you might know, I’m always interested in the patterns of meaning created in the Yijing by multiple line changes between hexagrams. But Hexagram 15 – perhaps appropriately – doesn’t make a lot of spectacular patterns in this way; I’ve only found a couple.
20.3.5.6 to 15
Hexagram 20, Seeing, has three lines about seeing life or seeing birth – one’s own, in lines 3 and 5, and other people’s in line 6:
‘Seeing my life.
Advancing, withdrawing.’
‘Seeing my own life.
The noble one is without mistake.’
‘Seeing their lives.
The noble one is without mistake.’
Changing these three lines together takes you to Hexagram 15. Hexagram 20 Sees most clearly and completely in these lines, with a sense of balance: accurately understanding both one’s own life and others’.
55.1.4 to 15
A major theme of Hexagram 55, Abundance, is being at the centre of the action and holding responsibility: ‘the king is present to it’; ‘the buck stops here’. But when this blends with Hexagram 15, the changing lines highlighted are the two about meeting allies:
‘Meeting your partner and lord,
Though for ten days, no mistake.
Going on brings honour.’
‘Feng is screened off
At midday, seeing the Dipper.
Meeting your hidden lord,
Good fortune.’
It’s reminiscent of 39.5 and the partners that come when you’re ‘greatly limping’ – and a good reminder that you can’t actually achieve the great work of Hexagram 55 without allies.
Conclusions?
Hexagram 60 as relating hexagram turns out to be a helpful attitude or direction for some primary hexagrams, and not so much for others. But Hexagram 15 seems to be unfailingly beneficial, with its combination of inward solidity and open responsiveness in the outer world. It seems to be a very strong position as relating hexagram, because it’s observant without needing a particular response.
Looking through my own journals, Hexagram 15 relating indicates a quiet, rock-solid resolve to do what’s needed, without dramatisation. ‘Assuming responsibility for exactly what I can do, and not what I can’t,’ according to my notes for a recent reading – which also means not imagining I have superpowers, and remembering that I (like that giant hamster) have some basic needs to be met.
