Chinese Wisdom Traditions

Chinese Wisdom Traditions

Hexagram symbolism and personal cultivation

Hexagram ䷦ 蹇 Jian

Turning to Yourself

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Master Zhongxian Wu
Jan 19, 2023
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ShanShangYouShui Jian JunZiYiFanShenXiuDe

山上有水,蹇,君子以反身修德

There is the water on a mountain, which is the image of hexagram Jian. Learn from this – turn around and cultivate your virtue.

 — DaXiang 大象    

As usual, the first four words in this DaXiang sentence describe the pattern found within nature that best represents the hexagram. Same as the previous hexagram, Xian, the starting structure of this sentence differs from the most hexagrams I have gone through thus far. The first word 山 (Shan), which means mountain, is the symbol of the bottom trigram, Gen 艮 ☶. 

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