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Hexagram 2 — Shi, The Army
Chronological no. 2 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 7 · 師
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the mother
the middle son
Within the Earth, Water lies hidden: the image of the army. Strength exists, but does not display itself — it holds itself ready, invisible, disciplined beneath a calm surface. This is the figure of contained power, one that needs no show to be real. Thus the noble one increases his people through tolerant generosity: true authority is never imposed through displayed force, but built through constancy and restraint.
Collective discipline falls into step, like a marching troop. No scattered force is worth an organized one: this line says that true power is never a single brilliant gesture, but a patiently maintained order, where each knows his place and the movement of the whole outweighs individual impulse.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, emptiness reaches its fullest extent and closes: the furthest opening turns toward its opposite.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
Eight 12×12 Jacquard patterns are generated from this hexagram, one for each admissible family of the system. Each has its own page: cell, tiling, recolourings and data.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
1 — Fu, Return · 3 — Lin, Approach
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☷ Kun): 0 — Kun, The Receptive · 1 — Fu, Return · 3 — Lin, Approach · 4 — Qian, Modesty · 5 — Ming Yi, Darkening of the Light · 6 — Sheng, Pushing Upward · 7 — Tai, Peace
Same lower trigram (☵ Kan): 10 — Jie, Deliverance · 18 — Kan, The Abysmal · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 58 — Song, Conflict
