Trigram ☶

艮 Gèn

Mountain · Stillness and meditation

One yang line resting on two yin lines: the mountain, still and settled. Its quality is stopping (止), knowing where to halt, and it stands for the hands and the watchdog, what holds and guards. On Wudang it is the trigram of sitting practice: stillness that is alert, not asleep.

Image
山Mountain
Quality
止Stillness and meditation
Family
Youngest son
Five Phase
土Earth
Body
手the hands
Animal
狗the dog
Early Heaven
northwest
Later Heaven
northeast · the turn from winter to spring

Body, animal and quality: the Shuo Gua (说卦传), the Ten Wings commentary on the trigrams.

Its solar term

In the Later Heaven circle the eight trigrams mark the eight turning points of the year. 艮 ☶ opens Start of Spring.

立春Lìchūn · Start of Spring

The 15 hexagrams that contain it

艮 above (outer)

艮 below (inner)