Gen
Gen: two yin lines with a yang line on top. Mountain, the youngest son, earth, northeast.
Symbolism
The firm line on top stops movement — hence the main meaning of Gen: stopping, rest, a limit. The image of a mountain means not only stillness but also a boundary: you don’t go beyond the mountain.
Element: earth; direction: northeast; season: the end of winter. Gen is associated with the back, with silence and with accumulation.
In a hexagram
In the lower position, Gen means inner stillness: you are not moving, whether deliberately or not. In the upper position, it means an outside obstacle, a limit, a wall.
Two Gen trigrams make hexagram 52, “Keeping Still.”
In feng shui
The northeast sector governs knowledge and study. Kua number 8 belongs to Gen. The earth here is stable, “mountain” earth, unlike the soft earth of Kun.