巽Xun · The Gentle Wind
In one sentence
Enter gently, going with the current, and there will be a small gain.
The hexagram of wind: it gets in everywhere, by yielding and seeping through, not by force. Follow capable people; going forward is favorable. But yielding does not mean having no mind of your own. When it is time to decide, decide.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- Be like the wind: work by seeping in, not by forcing your way. Move things forward bit by bit, explain again and again, follow through again and again, and there are small gains. Following someone capable and dependable is favorable. But yielding doesn't mean having no mind of your own: think carefully about whom to yield to, and make the call when a call is needed.
- Love
- Approach the other person gently: listen more, go along with their rhythm, and find your way into their heart little by little. It works better than insisting. But don't yield until there is nothing left of you. If you always give in and never dare to say anything, the relationship can't stand. When it's time to declare yourself, say it clearly.
- Money
- Small gains; this is not a time for big advances. Working along with the situation bit by bit, and asking advice from people who truly know the field and can be relied on, is favorable. But following whatever anyone says isn't going with the flow; it's having no mind of your own. The final decision has to be yours.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsThings go through in a small way, and it is favorable to act. You should go to see a person of virtue and ability: be compliant, but know whom you ought to comply with.
The Tuan commentary
重巽以申命，剛巽乎中正而志行。柔皆順乎剛，是以小亨，利有攸往，利見大人。
Xun is doubled, to repeat the command. The firm is gentle in the central and correct place, and its purpose is carried out. The yielding lines all comply with the firm. That is why there is "small success. It is favorable to have somewhere to go. It is favorable to see the great person."
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
隨風，巽。君子以申命行事。
Wind following wind: Xun (The Gentle Wind). The noble one reissues commands and carries out affairs.
The lines
Six at the beginning
Text進退，利武人之貞。Advancing and retreating. It is favorable to stay true like a soldier.In plain wordsOne moment you want to advance, the next you want to retreat, and you cannot make up your mind: humility carried too far. Only by staying true with a soldier's decisiveness will it go well. More on this line →
Nine in the second place
Text巽在床下，用史巫紛若，吉无咎。Yielding beneath the bed. Invocators and shamans are used in great number. Good fortune, no blame.In plain wordsSo humble that you crouch under the bed, and like the invocators and shamans you say what is sincerely in your heart again and again, never tiring of it. Good fortune, no blame. More on this line →
Nine in the third place
Text頻巽，吝。Yielding again and again. Humiliation.In plain wordsYou are not by nature someone who can bow your head; you force yourself to comply and fail at it time after time. Humiliating. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text悔亡，田獲三品。Regret vanishes. In the hunt, three kinds of game are taken.In plain wordsRegret vanishes. The hunt brings in three kinds of game, every one of them useful: there is real, solid achievement. More on this line →
Nine in the fifth place
Text貞吉悔亡，无不利。无初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。Staying true brings good fortune; regret vanishes. Nothing that is not favorable. No beginning, but there is an end. Three days before the change, three days after the change. Good fortune.In plain wordsStaying true brings good fortune, regret vanishes, and there is nothing that is not favorable. The start does not go smoothly, but the ending is good. When you mean to change something: for three days beforehand give careful, repeated notice, and for three days afterward weigh the results closely. Good fortune. More on this line →
Nine at the top
Text巽在床下，喪其資斧，貞凶。Yielding beneath the bed. One loses one's funds and axe. Persisting brings misfortune.In plain wordsSo humble that you crouch under the bed, and you have lost both your travel money and the axe that protects you, that is, even the decisiveness you ought to have. In this state, even with good intentions there is misfortune. More on this line →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Xun belongs to the third pentad of End of Heat, “Grain ripens” (September 2 to September 7, 2027) and the first pentad of White Dew, “Wild geese arrive” (September 8 to September 12, 2027).