Hexagram 52 — Bound
King Wen #52 · plain-language meaning, the Image, and the classical text
Stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop.
What Hexagram 52 Means 白话解读
Hexagram 52 places mountain (艮) beneath mountain (艮) — stillness holding its ground below, stillness holding its ground above. This is why the tradition reads it as “Bound”: stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop. Whenever you cast this figure, the classical reading points back to that turning of forces.
The Image 象傳
兼山，艮；君子以思不出其位。
(Two trigrams representing) a mountain, one over the other, form Kăn. The superior man, in accordance with this, does not go in his thoughts beyond the (duties of the) position in which he is.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
Mountain upon mountain: stillness. The wise keep their thoughts within their own station.— plain-English rendering by The Hexagrams2
Hexagram 52 in Real Questions 實問實答
With money and work
Bound describes stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop — and that is the posture the tradition recommends for practical matters under this figure: stillness holding its ground, held inside a larger setting of stillness holding its ground. It names a shape of timing, not a sum.
For a decision
If you cast Bound about a choice, the figure's counsel is the same movement it pictures: stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop. When lines move in your cast, read them against this base — the moving lines show which part of the figure is awake for you, and the changed hexagram shows where it is heading.
Questions About Hexagram 52
What does 艮 (gèn) mean?
Hexagram 52 of the I Ching is named 艮 (gèn), usually rendered "Bound" in English editions. Its figure is the doubled trigram mountain (艮) — stillness holding its ground above and below.
Is hexagram 52 a good omen?
The received text of hexagram 52 is warm: it contains one occurrence of 吉 (good fortune), and 3 of 無咎 (no blame). The classical verdict is broadly favourable — with the lines' own conditions attached (the text notes possible regret 悔 where the moment is mishandled).
What does hexagram 52 mean in love?
In a relationship reading, Bound points to stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop. The figure pairs mountain (艮) beneath mountain (艮) — stillness holding its ground meeting stillness holding its ground — which is the traditional picture of how this energy behaves between two people. For how to phrase a love question before casting, see our guide to asking the I Ching about love.
What does hexagram 52 mean for career and money?
Career and money questions read Bound through the figure itself: mountain (艮) below, mountain (艮) above — stillness holding its ground held inside stillness holding its ground. The plain reading: Stillness. Keep to your place, like the resting mountain — stop when it is time to stop. The text carries 1 mention of 吉 (good fortune), so it is read as workable — provided the conduct the lines describe is kept.
What do the changing lines of hexagram 52 mean?
A cast of hexagram 52 can produce moving lines. Each of the six lines has its own statement (爻辭) in the classical text below, read from the bottom up, and a moving line is read as the part of the figure that is awake for your question. When a line moves it turns into its opposite, and the whole figure becomes a second hexagram: changing every line of 52 gives hexagram 58, 兌 (Open). Every line also has a page of its own on this site — Line 1 through Line 6 under this hexagram — with the classical Chinese and Legge's translation side by side.
How is hexagram 52 related to the other hexagrams?
Changing every line of hexagram 52 gives hexagram 58 — 兌 (Open). Turned upside down it becomes hexagram 51 — 震 (Shake). Its nuclear hexagram — the inner pattern of lines 2 through 5 — is hexagram 40 — 解 (Taking-Apart).
Cast it yourself
Shake the tube, watch your own coins fall.
- The hexagram's classical meaning — judgment and all six lines
- Moving lines marked — but not read for you
- No account, no email, nothing to pay
Get the reading, not just the text
Same cast, read all the way through:
- Every line read for you — what each moving line means inside your question
- The changed hexagram — where your situation is heading, and how to read the turn
- A closing that answers you directly — act, wait, or say it out loud
New to casting? How it works · All 64 hexagrams
Related Hexagrams 錯綜互
The Classical Text 經文
艮其背，不獲其身；行其庭，不見其人，無咎。
When one's resting is like that of the back, and he loses all consciousness of self; when he walks in his courtyard, and does not see any (of the persons) in it,--there will be no error.— The I Ching, trans. James Legge, 1899 (public domain)1
The Six Lines 爻辞
艮其趾，無咎，利永貞。
The first SIX, divided, shows its subject keeping his toes at rest. There will be no error; but it will be advantageous for him to be persistently firm and correct.
艮其腓，不拯其隨，其心不快。
The second SIX, divided, shows its subject keeping the calves of his legs at rest. He cannot help (the subject of the line above) whom he follows, and is dissatisfied in his mind.
艮其限，列其夤，厲燻心。
The third NINE, undivided, shows its subject keeping his loins at rest, and separating the ribs (from the body below). The situation is perilous, and the heart glows with suppressed excitement.
艮其身，無咎。
The fourth SIX, divided, shows its subject keeping his trunk at rest. There will be no error.
艮其輔，言有序，悔亡。
S. The fifth SIX, divided, shows its subject keeping his jawbones at rest, so that his words are (all) orderly. Occasion for repentance will disappear.
敦艮，吉。
The sixth NINE, undivided, shows its subject devotedly maintaining his restfulness. There will be good fortune.
Line by Line 逐爻细读
1 Legge, James. The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI (1899), public domain. Classical Chinese from the received Zhouyi text.2 The Image (象傳) is an ancient text in the public domain; its plain-English gloss here is original to The Hexagrams, not a quotation from any copyrighted edition. · For reflection and entertainment — not financial, medical, or life advice.