上卦
坤 Kūn
Earth — Receptive
下卦
乾 Qián
Heaven — Creative
经典文本
卦旨
Tai is not simply good times. It is the specific condition in which heaven and earth communicate — the structural alignment that makes flourishing possible. The hexagram shows Earth (Kun) above Heaven (Qian), which appears inverted until you understand the principle: heaven's nature is to rise, earth's nature is to descend, so in this arrangement they move toward each other. Their energies interpenetrate. The creative ascends into the receptive, the receptive descends to meet the creative, and in this mutual approach every channel is open, every exchange flows freely. This is peace not as the absence of conflict but as the active communion of complementary forces. The judgment — 小往大來，吉亨 — "the small departs, the great approaches" — describes a tide turning. What diminishes recedes; what nourishes advances. But the hexagram's deepest teaching appears in its third line: 无平不陂，无往不復 — "no plain that does not become a slope, no going that does not become a return." In the very center of peace, the text insists on impermanence. Every level ground eventually tilts; every departure eventually circles back. Tai does not promise permanent harmony. It reveals that harmony is a phase in a cycle, and that awareness of this impermanence is the only way to extend it. The sixth line confirms the reversal: 城復于隍 — "the city wall collapses back into the moat." Peace ends. The question is not whether but when. Tai's goal is not the achievement of peace but the proper stewardship of it. The Image text — 后以財成天地之道，輔相天地之宜，以左右民 — tasks the ruler with completing and assisting the natural order for the benefit of the people. During communion between heaven and earth, the work is distribution: ensuring that the flow reaches everywhere it should, that the alignment produces actual benefit rather than merely comfortable stasis. Tai regulates prosperity itself, teaching that abundance is sustained only through vigilant awareness of its inherent fragility and through active effort to channel its gifts before the cycle turns toward Standstill.
彖辞
The small departs, the great arrives. Resolves well. Fulfillment. Smallness leaving, greatness arriving. That's peace — not the absence of conflict, but the direction of traffic. Everything that was stuck is moving. Everything that was moving in the wrong direction has reversed. The configuration isn't calm. It's correct.
象辞
Heaven and earth interact: peace. The ruler accordingly completes heaven and earth's way, assists their proper order, and thereby serves the people. Heaven and earth in direct contact. That's the image — not two forces resting, but two forces meeting. The ruler's job in times of peace isn't to relax. It's to make sure the interaction between high and low actually reaches the people. Peace is a delivery system, not a vacation.
爻辞
第初爻
Pulling up thatch grass, it comes with its kind by the roots. Advancing: resolves well. Pull one reed and the whole cluster comes up. In a time of peace, moving forward brings others along — you don't even have to try. The root system is connected. The question isn't whether to advance. It's whether you've noticed that you're not going alone.
第二爻
Embracing the wilderness. Fording the river without a boat. Not neglecting the distant. Alliances pass. Gaining honor through balanced action. Cross the river without a boat. Don't ignore what's far away. Let alliances come and go. The longest line in the hexagram and every phrase is about reach — how far you're willing to extend yourself when things are going well. The middle path gets the honor. Not the cautious path. Not the reckless one. The one that covers ground.
第三爻
No level plain without slopes. No going without return. Difficulty in sustained orientation: no fault. Do not worry about these certainties. In nourishment there is blessing. No flat without a hill. No departure without a return. This is the text gently informing you that peace doesn't last. Not as a warning — as physics. The slope is built into the plain. No fault in finding it hard to hold the course, as long as you eat well on the way. The blessing is in the sustenance, not the terrain.
第四爻
Fluttering down. Not wealthy, yet sharing with neighbors. Without defense, using trust. Descending lightly, without wealth, sharing with neighbors, no guards posted. Trust instead of vigilance. This line sounds naive. It isn't. It's the fourth position — visible, consequential — and the move that works is letting go of the thing everyone says you need. The neighbors don't require your money. They require your open door.
第五爻
Emperor Yi gives his daughter in marriage. This brings blessings. Supremely favorable. The emperor marries his daughter downward. Not to a peer — downward. And it's the most favorable line in the hexagram. Supremely favorable. Power voluntarily connecting to what's below it. Not condescension. Structural completion. The highest praise in the peace hexagram goes to greatness that doesn't need to stay high.
第上爻
The city wall falls back into the moat. Do not deploy the army. Issue commands from your own city. Sustained orientation: friction. The wall collapses into its own ditch. Peace is over. And the instruction is: don't fight it. Don't send troops. Just go home and give the orders from there. Sustained commitment here brings friction, not resolution. The top of the peace hexagram and the message is: you can't fight the end of peace. You can only manage the transition.
焦氏易林
焦延寿《易林》——第11卦本卦之辞。西汉时期以四言诗阐释卦变，为最早的系统性易学占辞集。
求玉陳國，留連東域；須我王孫，四月來復；主君有德，蒙恩受福。
泰之本卦，天地交通不息。
阅读完整注释 ↓
泰之本卦，天地交通不息。求玉於陳國，留連東域——陳國為舜後裔所封，以美玉聞名。「須我王孫，四月來復」——等待貴人歸來，四月正值陽氣充盛之時。主君有德，故蒙恩受福。泰至泰，自我循環：德行流轉不竭，如天地交通之道生生不已。出行求寶者因有德而得福，歸來施恩於眾。此詩為泰卦之最佳寫照——和平繁盛之機，周而復始，不假外求。
English commentary
Peace returning to itself, earth above heaven in doubled communion. One journeys to the state of Chen seeking jade, lingering in the eastern lands. The verse then calls out: 'Wait for our prince to return — in the fourth month he shall come back.' The lord possesses virtue, and through his merit all receive blessing. Chen was famed for its jade and its ancient lineage descended from Emperor Shun. The fourth month marks the height of spring's generative power. From Peace to Peace, the pattern is self-renewing: virtue circulates without depletion, and the prince who departs on a worthy errand returns enriched, distributing fortune to all.