Trigram ☷

Kun 坤: Earth

Symbol

☷ 坤

Natural image

Earth

Quality

the receptive, yielding

Family role

Mother

Lines, bottom to top

000 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

A trigram is a stack of three lines. Each hexagram is two trigrams: one below (the lower, inner or earlier situation) and one above (the upper, outer or later situation). Kun appears in sixteen of the sixty-four hexagrams, eight times as the upper trigram and eight as the lower.

Kun as the upper trigram

• 2 The Receptive
• 7 The Army
• 11 Peace
• 15 Modesty
• 19 Approach
• 24 Return
• 36 Darkening of the Light
• 46 Pushing Upward

Kun as the lower trigram

• 2 The Receptive
• 8 Holding Together
• 12 Standstill
• 16 Enthusiasm
• 20 Contemplation
• 23 Splitting Apart
• 35 Progress
• 45 Gathering Together

See also the eight trigrams.

Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Kun 坤: Earth." https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/kun (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 are licensed CC BY 4.0.

Updated October 7, 2026. Markdown version