# Hexagram 52: Keeping Still

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/52
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━  ━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Gen 艮](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/gen), Mountain, keeping still
- **Lower trigram:** [Gen 艮](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/gen), Mountain, keeping still
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 001001 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Keeping still. A call to quiet the restless mind, to halt the endless outward motion. True stillness is not absence of life but the condition in which life reveals itself most clearly. Much of what looks like necessary action is actually distraction from what is hard to feel.

## Image

Mountain above mountain, unmoving. The superior person does not let their thoughts go beyond their present situation.

## Counsel

Stop. Really stop. Take the time to become still enough that the agitation of the mind settles. What you perceive in that stillness is a truer guide than anything you could strategize for in motion. The situation does not need more action from you right now; it needs more clarity.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A six at the beginning means:
> Keeping still of his toes.
> No blame. Favorable is lasting perseverance.

### Line 2

> A six in the second place means:
> Keeping still of his calves.
> He cannot rescue the one he follows.
> His heart is not glad.

### Line 3

> A nine in the third place means:
> Keeping still of his hips.
> Stiffening of his sacrum.
> Dangerous. The heart suffocates.

### Line 4

> A six in the fourth place means:
> Keeping still of his trunk.
> No blame.

### Line 5

> A six in the fifth place means:
> Keeping still of his jaws.
> The words have order.
> Remorse vanishes.

### Line 6

> A nine at the top means:
> Magnanimous keeping still. Good fortune!

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [40 Deliverance](https://thefreeiching.com/library/40)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [51 The Arousing](https://thefreeiching.com/library/51)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [58 The Joyous](https://thefreeiching.com/library/58)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [22 Grace](https://thefreeiching.com/library/22) |
| Line 2 | [18 Work on the Decayed](https://thefreeiching.com/library/18) |
| Line 3 | [23 Splitting Apart](https://thefreeiching.com/library/23) |
| Line 4 | [56 The Wanderer](https://thefreeiching.com/library/56) |
| Line 5 | [53 Development](https://thefreeiching.com/library/53) |
| Line 6 | [15 Modesty](https://thefreeiching.com/library/15) |

Previous: [51 The Arousing](https://thefreeiching.com/library/51). Next: [53 Development](https://thefreeiching.com/library/53). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 52: Keeping Still." https://thefreeiching.com/library/52 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/52). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.