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Hexagram 11 of 64

I Ching hexagram 11 ☷☰ Peace

I Ching hexagram 11, Peace, is earth above, heaven below. In brief: harmony — heaven and earth meet, and their forces flow toward each other. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1, 2 and 3 and its broken lines in 4, 5 and 6.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚊⚊⚋⚋⚋ 111000 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Earth over Heaven Kun ☷ / Qian ☰
Every line changed
№ 12 Standstill
In Legge, 1882
p. 81 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 12, Standstill and 54, The Marrying Maiden.

Also with Earth above: 2, The Receptive, 7, The Army and 15, Modesty.

Also with Heaven below: 1, The Creative, 5, Waiting and 9, Small Taming.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 11: Peace

Upper trigram

☷

Earth (Kun) above

Receptive yielding.

FamilyMother
ElementEarth

Lower trigram

☰

Heaven (Qian) below

Creative force.

FamilyFather
ElementMetal

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 11

The Judgement

Peace and harmony: heaven and earth are in communication. What is small departs and what is great arrives, and things flourish.

The Image

Earth above heaven, each moving toward the other. The lesson is to shape and support this good period so that its benefits reach everyone.

A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →

Primary source

Hexagram 11 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“In Thâi (we see) the little gone and the great come. (It indicates that) there will be good fortune, with progress and success.”
The Image
“(The trigrams for) heaven and earth in communication together form Thâi. The (sage) sovereign, in harmony with this, fashions and completes (his regulations) after the courses of heaven and earth, and assists the application of the adaptations furnished by them,—in order to benefit the people.”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, suggests the idea of grass pulled up, and bringing with it other stalks with whose roots it is connected. Advance (on the part of its subject) will be fortunate.
  2. Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows one who can bear with the uncultivated, will cross the Ho without a boat, does not forget the distant, and has no (selfish) friendships. Thus does he prove himself acting in accordance with the course of the due Mean.
  3. Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows that, while there is no state of peace that is not liable to be disturbed, and no departure (of evil men) so that they shall not return, yet when one is firm and correct, as he realises the distresses that may arise, he will commit no error. There is no occasion for sadness at the certainty (of such recurring changes); and in this mood the happiness (of the present) may be (long) enjoyed.
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject fluttering (down);—not relying on his own rich resources, but calling in his neighbours. (They all come) not as having received warning, but in the sincerity (of their hearts).
  5. Line 5 The fifth line, divided, reminds us of (king) Tî-yî’s (rule about the) marriage of his younger sister. By such a course there is happiness and there will be great good fortune.
  6. Line 6 · top The sixth line, divided, shows us the city wall returned into the moat. It is not the time to use the army. (The subject of the line) may, indeed, announce his orders to the people of his own city; but however correct and firm he may be, he will have cause for regret.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 81 — read the original text. Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.

Peace for a decision

A favorable time to act, cooperate and build. Make the most of it, and use the easy conditions to strengthen what will need to survive harder ones.

I Ching 11 in love and relationships

Harmony, mutual understanding and ease. A good period to deepen commitment and make joint plans.

Hexagram 11 at work

Smooth cooperation and growth. Invest, expand and share credit — the hexagram also reminds that peaceful periods do not last forever.

The six lines of hexagram 11

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yang yin yin yin — what each position means.

Hexagram 11: Earth over Heaven
Hexagram 11, Peace, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 42Line 2 · yang, solidout of placeanswered by 53Line 3 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 64Line 4 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 15Line 5 · yin, brokenout of placeanswered by 26Line 6 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 3LowerQianHeavenUpperKunEarthKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

3 yang and 3 yin lines. Four of the six stand in their proper place, and all three pairs answer each other.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Heaven below — creative force — is the private, inner side of hexagram 11.

Earth above — receptive yielding — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Earth above generates Metal below, so the movement runs downward — the outer situation is feeding the inner one. Support arrives from outside rather than being generated within.

Read as a family

The mother sits above and the father below. Both parents, with the mother on top: the heavier figure sits above the lighter one, so the two move toward each other.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 11

Hexagram 54, The Marrying Maiden

Nuclear hexagram

54 · The Marrying Maiden

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Dui (Lake) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Zhen (Thunder) as the upper.

Hexagram 12, Standstill

Opposite hexagram

12 · Standstill

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Earth over Heaven becomes Heaven over Earth.

Hexagram 12, Standstill

Inverse hexagram

12 · Standstill

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Earth over Heaven becomes Heaven over Earth.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Earth above, Heaven below.

Earth over Heaven: receptive yielding meeting creative force.

← 10 · All 64 · 12 →

7 The Army 8 Holding Together 9 Small Taming 10 Treading 12 Standstill 13 Fellowship 14 Great Possession

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 81

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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