Hexagram 15 for work
Hexagram 15 Humility for work and career
At work Qian is the hexagram of the person who carries the weight without claiming it: the engineer whose system everyone relies on, the manager who credits the team. The judgment promises success and that 'the superior person has an end', and the Great Image gives the leader's task: take from where there is too much and add to where there is too little, weighing things fairly.
The lines are a career in modesty. One is the junior who tends their character low down and so can attempt a hard crossing; two is a reputation for modesty that must remain real; three is the ruler of the hexagram, acknowledged merit worn lightly. Four is the deputy deferring to the better person below and the senior above; five is the modest chief who still corrects those who refuse to cooperate; six is the senior whose modesty is known but unfulfilled, who must first set their own house in order. A lower-trigram changing line is about how you carry your merit; an upper-trigram one, about leading humbly without being walked over.
The hexagram in brief
A mountain hidden within the earth: greatness that stays low. The only hexagram whose six lines all turn out well — humility succeeds, and the superior person carries things through to the end.
Take less, give more, level the heights: modesty is a strength that others gladly support.
The judgment
謙：亨，君子有終。Khien indicates progress and success. The superior man, (being humble as it implies), will have a (good) issue (to his undertakings).
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 謙 Humility has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginninghumble upon humble · crossing the river · tending oneself low
- 六二Six in the second placehumility that sounds · from the heart · central and correct
- 九三Nine in the third placemerit with humility · ruler of the hexagram · all submit
- 六四Six in the fourth placenothing unfavourable · showing humility · not breaking the rule
- 六五Six in the fifth placenot rich, yet neighbours · correcting the unsubmissive · humility with force
- 上六Six at the tophumility heard · aim not attained · only one's own town
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 15, Humility, mean for a career question?
- At work Qian is the hexagram of the person who carries the weight without claiming it: the engineer whose system everyone relies on, the manager who credits the team. The judgment promises success and that 'the superior person has an end', and the Great Image gives the leader's task: take from where there is too much and add to where there is too little, weighing things fairly.
- What does Hexagram 15, 謙 Humility, mean?
- A mountain hidden within the earth: greatness that stays low. The only hexagram whose six lines all turn out well — humility succeeds, and the superior person carries things through to the end.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).