Modesty
The Mountain Kept Low
Greatness that keeps itself low finishes what it begins; authority granted, never claimed.
Modesty places the receptive earth of Kun above Gen, the mountain that keeps still, giving the image of a mountain within the earth: the tallest thing in the landscape lying beneath the flattest. The Judgement is brief and unqualified, that modesty creates success and that the superior man carries things to completion. The commentary generalises it, holding that heaven diminishes what is full and augments what is modest, and that earth flows towards the low. The Image follows in kind, the superior man reducing what is too much and adding to what is too little, weighing things in order to make them equal.
Light
Signifies humility that finishes what it begins, fair distribution, authority granted rather than claimed, and steady passage through circumstances that would humble the proud.
Shadow
Can represent self-abasement mistaken for modesty, or humility performed in order to be noticed. The upper lines make plain that it is not passivity, since it may still have to take the field.
