坤

The Kun trigram in the I Ching (坤卦).

Traditionally analyzed as a compound ideogram:

土 — “earth,” representing the ground, soil, or terrestrial domain.

申 (납 신) — interpreted here not in its usual phonetic sense (“extend”), but as symbolizing the stretched or expanded aspect of the earth.

Together, they convey “the vastly extended earth.”

Some later interpretations classify 坤 as phono-semantic, taking 申 as the phonetic element giving the sound kon / kun.

坤卦 (곤괘) — the Earth trigram (☷ Kun)

坤德 (곤덕) — the virtue of receptivity, gentleness

坤道 (곤도) — the way or path of womanhood; feminine virtue

坤寧宮 (곤녕궁) — the “Palace of Earthly Tranquility” — residence of the Empress

乾坤 (건곤) — Heaven and Earth; the universe

坤元 (곤원) — origin or source of earth; feminine energy

In imperial symbolism, 乾 = Emperor / Heaven, while 坤 = Empress / Earth.

Thus the Emperor resided in 乾清宮 (Hall of Heavenly Purity) and the Empress in 坤寧宮 (Palace of Earthly Tranquility) within the Forbidden City.

The term 건곤 (乾坤) often poetically denotes the whole universe or cosmic order.

The character also appears in Buddhist and Taoist texts to denote the receptive aspect of being, the ground of manifestation.

「坤，元亨，利牝馬之貞。」

“Kun — supreme success, favoring perseverance of a mare.” — I Ching, Hexagram 2

Here 坤 stands for the feminine power of receptivity, complementing 乾 (heaven), which stands for creativity and initiative.

Related characters:

乾 (qián) — heaven, creative, masculine — complement (yang).

地 (dì) — earth, ground — semantic kin.

土 (tǔ) — soil, land — radical component.

申 (shēn) — extend, state — phonetic component.

堃 (kūn) — variant form — graphic variant used in some seals.

Linguistic notes:

훈 (meaning): 따 곤 / 땅 곤 (“earth Gon”).

The form 따 preserves an archaic Korean noun 땅(따ᄒ) (“earth, ground”), with the final ᄒ lost through phonetic simplification.

음 (reading): 곤 / kūn (Chinese Pinyin) / kon (Japanese On’yomi).