Hexagram 52 of 64
Stillness
艮 Gèn
Upper trigram: 艮 Gèn, mountain
Lower trigram: 艮 Gèn, mountain
The judgment
艮其背，不獲其身，行其庭，不見其人，无咎。
Stilling the back, and the body is not grasped. Walking in the courtyard, and the person is not seen. No blame.
The Great Image
兼山，艮；君子以思不出其位。
Mountain joined to mountain: this is Stillness. In the same way, the noble person's thinking stays within the post held.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初六
艮其趾，无咎，利永貞。
Stilling the toes. No blame. It is fitting to hold firm for the long term.
Toes are the first part of you to move. Consider stopping before the first step, while stopping costs very little.
Line 2 六二
艮其腓，不拯其隨，其心不快。
Stilling the calves. Not rescuing what they follow. The heart is unhappy.
The calf stops and the body above it keeps moving, and the line says the heart is unhappy about it. Ask where you have halted yourself while something you follow goes on without your help.
Line 3 九三
艮其限，裂其夤，厲閽心。
Stilling the waist. Splitting the flesh along the spine. Danger, and the heart is shut as if by a gatekeeper.
Stillness forced at the waist, the place where the body bends, tears at the back. Ask whether you are holding yourself so rigid that you have shut the door on what you feel.
Line 4 六四
艮其身，无咎。
Stilling the body. No blame.
The stillness has reached the body itself and the line finds no fault in it. Consider sitting with your own restlessness for a while before you try to settle anyone else's.
Line 5 六五
艮其輔，言有孚，悔亡。
Stilling the jaws. In speech there is trust. Regret goes.
The jaw is held still, so each word comes out on purpose. Consider what you could leave unsaid so that what you do say can be relied on.
Line 6 上九
敦艮，吉。
Solid stillness. Good fortune.
The word for solid here means thick and generous, like earth heaped at the top of a mountain. Ask what your calm would look like if it took no effort to hold.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is mountain below and mountain above. Each half has one solid line resting on two broken ones, like a peak with nothing above it. It stands for coming to a stop and staying stopped.
The judgment pictures someone so still at the back that the self is not grasped, and who walks through a courtyard without seeing the person there. It treats this as free of blame. Ask what would change if you stopped reacting for a while to the demands in your line of sight.
If your question is about work, a quarrel or a decision you feel pushed to make, tradition reads this as a time for halting at the right place. The lines climb the body from the toes to the jaw. The third warns that stillness forced on the middle of things tears at you.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/艮), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In line 九三, Wikisource (A) reads 裂其夤 (splitting the flesh along the spine). Project Gutenberg (B) reads 列其夤, with 列 (to divide or set apart) in place of 裂 (to split). Wikisource also gives the note 一作「列」, an alternative reading.
- In line 九三, Wikisource (A) reads 厲閽心, with 閽 (a gatekeeper), which we render as a heart shut as if by a gatekeeper. Project Gutenberg (B) reads 厲薰心, with 薰 (to smoke or sear), which gives danger searing the heart. Wikisource also gives the note 一作「薰」, an alternative reading.
- In line 六五, Wikisource (A) reads 言有孚 (in speech there is trust). Project Gutenberg (B) reads 言有序 (in speech there is order). Wikisource also gives the note 一作「序」, an alternative reading.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.