Upper ☶ Gen (艮, mountain) / Lower ☶ Gen (艮, mountain)
gèn · 艮
Mountain upon mountain: a hexagram of stopping where one ought to stop, so that stillness governs both rest and movement.
Both trigrams are Gen ☶, mountain, whose quality is stopping; in the family it is the youngest son. Zhu Xi describes a single yang line that has risen from below and come to rest above two yin lines, like earth heaped up into a peak. The theme, in his reading, is stopping where one ought to stop, so that one stays still whether at rest or in motion.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
艮其背，不獲其身，行其庭，不見其人，无咎。
Stopping in the back, one does not take hold of one's body. Walking in the courtyard, one does not see the people there. No blame.
The body is a thing that moves, Zhu Xi explains; only the back stays still. To stop in the back is to stop where one should, and then one is no longer carried along by the body's movements, which is what not taking hold of one's body means. Then even walking through a courtyard full of people, one does not see them. The first half is stillness while at rest, the second stillness while moving; in both, stillness is in charge, and that is why there is no blame.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
兼山，艮。君子以思不出其位。
Mountains doubled: Gen. The noble person, accordingly, keeps thought within the bounds of one's own position.
Zhu Xi adds no note here. Two mountains stand together, each staying where it is. The noble person's thinking likewise stays within the position actually held, which echoes the judgment note: stopping where one ought to stop.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
艮其趾，无咎，利永貞。
Stopping at the toes. No blame. It is fitting to be correct and firm for the long term.
Weak and yin at the start of the hexagram, this line is the toes, where any movement begins, so stopping here means stopping before setting out. Whoever does so has no blame. Because the line is soft, Zhu Xi adds, the text also warns that it is fitting to stay correct and firm for a long time.
Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading
艮其腓，不拯其隨，其心不快。
Stopping at the calves. They cannot come to the aid of what they follow. The heart is not content.
Central and correct, the second line has already stopped the calves. The waist above, the third line, is what the calves follow, but it is too firm, off-center, and locked in place. The second, soft and weak by nature, cannot go up and rescue it, so its heart is unhappy. Zhu Xi notes that here, and in the lines that follow, the verdict is contained in the image.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
艮其限，列其夤，厲薰心。
Stopping at the waist. The flesh along the spine is torn apart. Danger; anxiety smolders in the heart.
限 is where the upper and lower body meet, the waist and hips; 夤 is the flesh along the spine. Stopping the calves merely keeps one from advancing, but the third line, too firm and off-center, stops right at the waist: the body can no longer bend or straighten, and top and bottom are cut off as if the spine were split. Zhu Xi calls the result the most extreme unease.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
艮其身，无咎。
Stopping the body. No blame.
Yin in a yin place, the fourth line stops when the time is for stopping. So it gives the picture of holding the whole body still, and the text finds no blame. A stillness that matches the moment is not a loss.
Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading
艮其輔，言有序，悔亡。
Stopping at the jaws. Speech has order. Regret vanishes.
Standing where the jaws are, the fifth line gives the picture of a mouth held in check, so that what is said comes out in order. The regret in question, Zhu Xi specifies, comes from a yin line sitting in a yang place; with this restraint it vanishes. Measured speech is one of the places where stopping shows.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
敦艮，吉。
Stopping that is solid and deep. Good fortune.
Firm yang at the very top of the hexagram of stopping, this is, in Zhu Xi's words, someone solid and deep in stopping. It is the yang line that, as his judgment note puts it, rises from below and comes to rest at the top.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.