Hexagram 15 · Qiān 謙 Humility

謙，亨，君子有終。

Qian. Success. The noble person has a good end.

Humility, Zhu Xi says, means having something and not dwelling in it. Stopping within and yielding without gives the meaning; the picture is the mountain, the highest of things, bending to rest beneath the earth, the lowest. For one who acts this way, things go through and there is a good end. Having an end, he explains, means bending first and straightening later. Humility in this reading is not self-erasure but a way of letting things come right in their time.

地中有山，謙。君子以裒多益寡，稱物平施。

Within the earth there is a mountain: Qian. The noble person, accordingly, takes from what is plentiful and adds to what is scarce, weighing things and giving out evenly.

A mountain held inside the earth is the high contained within the low, which Zhu Xi calls the image of humility. Taking where there is much and adding where there is little lets one weigh what each thing needs and spread one's giving evenly. Lowering the high and raising the low toward level ground, he says, is itself the spirit of humility.

Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading

謙謙君子，用涉大川，吉。

Humble and humble again, the noble person. With this one crosses the great river. Good fortune.

A soft line in the lowest place is humility at its most complete, and Zhu Xi calls it the conduct of the noble person. With modesty like this, he asks, what difficulty could not be crossed? So the text favors crossing the great river. The doubled word stresses a modesty that runs all the way down.

Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading

鳴謙，貞吉。

Humility that becomes known. Correct and firm: good fortune.

Soft, central and correct, the second line is someone whose humility has come to be known by others; Zhu Xi glosses the word for calling out as having a name for humility. Because that name rests on real yielding and correctness, the line is both correct and fortunate. Here the reputation follows the quality, not the other way around.

Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading

勞謙，君子有終，吉。

Humble despite hard-won merit, the noble person has a good end. Good fortune.

The only yang line in the hexagram sits at the top of the lower trigram, firm and correct, and every other line turns to it. Zhu Xi notes how rare it is to have real achievements and still be humble; that is why this line reaches a good end. Effort and modesty together are what the text links to good fortune here.

Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading

无不利，撝謙。

There is nothing that is not favorable. Give full play to humility.

Soft and correct, the fourth line stands high yet can still place itself low, so nothing is unfavorable. Zhu Xi adds a caution: it sits above the third line, the hard-working yang line to whom all the others turn, so it should bring its humility out still further, showing that it does not presume to feel secure there. Standing above someone of greater merit calls for extra modesty.

Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading

不富以其鄰，利用侵伐，无不利。

Not rich, yet it leads its neighbors. It is favorable to launch an attack. There is nothing that is not favorable.

Soft in the seat of honor, the fifth line is a ruler who stays humble at the top, and so, Zhu Xi says, even without riches it can lead its neighbors: many already follow it. If some still refuse to submit, the text finds it fitting to move against them, and in other affairs too nothing goes amiss. He ties the prognosis to having this virtue. Humility in this line is not weakness.

Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading

鳴謙，利用行師，征邑國。

Humility that becomes known. It is favorable to set troops in motion, to bring one's own towns and state into line.

Humility has reached its height and is widely known, and Zhu Xi says people side with such a person, so troops can be used. But the line is soft by nature and holds no ruling position, so its reach stops at its own towns and state. Repeating the second line's phrase, the top line shows a name for humility at its widest, still bounded by its place.