Humility

Humility, or Khien (Hexagram 15), is presented as a practical discipline rather than a renunciation of action: it brings progress and success because the superior man’s humility gives his undertakings a good outcome. The figure’s sequence extends that principle from personal conduct to public authority, showing how humility can make action possible, attract willing support, and still permit force when justice requires it.

Meaning and Place in the Sequence

The commentary places an essay on humility after the discussion of abundant possessions. The ordering makes humility a counterweight to having much: it is the quality that governs how strength and resources are carried, rather than a substitute for capability. Its conclusion is emphatic: humility is the way to permanent success.

The hexagram’s central image is a strong line amid five divided lines, occupying the top of the lower trigram. The Khang-hsî editors and many others identify this line as the lord of the hexagram and the representative of humility: its strength is expressed through abasement. The commentary declines to pursue the symbolism further, keeping the interpretation focused on the ethical principle rather than elaborating a separate allegory.

The Lines as a Progression

The first line gives humility its most modest form. A divided line at the lowest position represents the superior man adding humility to humility. This conduct is not portrayed as weakness or withdrawal: with it, even the great stream may be crossed, and the outcome is fortunate.

The second line describes humility that has made itself recognized. It is weak, central, and in its proper place; the commentary calls its humility one that has “crowed,” or proclaimed itself. Its visibility does not cancel its virtue, but the line’s judgment attaches good fortune to firm correctness, making right conduct the condition of its success.

The third line is strong and occupies its proper, odd-numbered place. As lord of the hexagram, it is the point toward which the other lines turn. Its position gives the figure a source of strength, while its role as the representative of humility makes clear that strength and self-abasement are not opposites here: the governing force of the figure is precisely a strength that does not exalt itself.

The fourth line is weak and in its proper position. Its subject is expected to succeed and prosper, but proximity to the fifth line calls for the greatest precaution. The warning qualifies the promise of success: humility remains necessary even when circumstances have become favorable and authority is close at hand.

Authority, Support, and Force

The fifth line presents humility in a ruler. Others follow him even if he is not especially rich or powerful, because people love and honor humility in itself, apart from the advantages that ordinarily command obedience and respect. The line therefore locates authority not only in material strength but in a disposition that elicits willing allegiance.

That humility does not require the ruler to refrain from defending what is right. The commentary explicitly allows him to assert the right, even by force of arms. The contrast is essential to the figure’s teaching: restraint is not passivity, and a humble ruler may exercise power without making power or wealth the basis of his claim to obedience.

In the sixth line, humility has again made itself recognized, and its subject may advantageously put his hosts in motion. Yet the permitted force is bounded: he is to punish only his own towns and state. The commentary describes him as outside the contest that has already played out; his use of force is confined to his own sphere and directed toward asserting what is right, not aggression against others. The ending thus preserves both halves of the principle: humility can authorize decisive action, while setting limits on its reach.