The Gentle
- In Chinese
- 巽 xùn
- Above
- The Gentle, wind
- Below
- The Gentle, wind
Did you get this hexagram?
Mark your changing lines and keep your cast.
Mark my castWhat hexagram 57 means
Hexagram 57 is the wind doubled. Legge asks us to think of wind “with its penetrating power, finding its way into every corner and cranny”.
The judgment names a modest result. In Legge it is “some little attainment and progress”, with advantage in moving onward and in seeing the great man.
Wilhelm puts the same idea in one phrase. “Success through what is small.”
Two lines carry good fortune, the second and the fifth. The top line is the one that ends in evil, and Legge traces that evil to the quality of the hexagram “being carried to excess”.
The judgment and the image
The judgment
巽小亨。利有攸往。利見大人。
THE GENTLE. Success through what is small. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers one to see the great man.
success things flow and come throughit furthers it is favorable
The image
隨風，《巽》。君子以申命行事。
Winds following one upon the other: The image of THE GENTLY PENETRATING. Thus the superior man Spreads his commands abroad And carries out his undertakings.
What the commentaries say
The commentary on the judgment reads the doubled trigram as repetition. It shows how “(governmental) orders are reiterated”.
The same commentary explains the judgment from the lines. The strong fifth line “has penetrated into the central and correct place”, and the weak first and fourth lines are “both obedient to the strong lines (above them)”.
The image is two winds, one following the other. From it the commentary draws a rule for the superior man, who “reiterates his orders, and secures the practice of his affairs”. In Wilhelm he “Spreads his commands abroad And carries out his undertakings”.
Legge gives the trigram two attributes, “flexibility (nearly allied to docility) and penetration”. He quotes a saying of Confucius about the wind and the grass. “The grass must bend when the wind blows upon it.”
From that saying Legge takes the subject of the hexagram. It is “the influence and orders of government designed to remedy what is wrong in the people”.
Legge asks why the judgment speaks only of a little attainment. He reports the answer of the Khang-hsî editors, that the effect is small “because the process is not to revolutionise or renew, but only to correct and improve”. Small as the work is, he notes that “it requires the operation of the strong and virtuous”. He does not hide his doubt and adds “Even all this criticism is not entirely satisfactory.”
The six lines
First line
進退。利武人之貞。
In advancing and in retreating, The perseverance of a warrior furthers.
it furthers it is favorable
The bottom line wavers between going on and going back. The commentary says “his mind is perplexed”, and Legge adds that “He wants vigour and decision”. The text answers with the firmness of “a brave soldier”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 9, Small Taming
Second line
巽在床下，用史巫、紛若吉、无咎。
Penetration under the bed. Priests and magicians are used in great number. Good fortune. No blame.
good fortune it goes wellno blame there is no mistake in it
Someone searches beneath a couch for what is hidden there. Legge explains that “He calls in divination to assist his judgment, and exorcists to expel for him what is bad”. The task looks close to confusion, and Legge says why. “The work is great and difficult, so that he appears almost distracted by it; but the issue is good.” The commentary puts the good fortune down to the place of the line in the centre.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 53, Development
Third line
頻巽，吝。
Repeated penetration. Humiliation.
humiliation it leads to embarrassment
Here the subject gets through only by force. The text speaks of “violent and repeated efforts”, and the commentary sees in them “the exhaustion of the will”. Legge sums up that “All the striving is ineffective”. Wilhelm gives the line in three words. “Repeated penetration. Humiliation.”
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 59, Dispersion
Fourth line
悔亡，田獲三品。
Remorse vanishes. During the hunt Three kinds of game are caught.
remorse disappears regret fades away
Regret passes away and the hunt succeeds. Legge explains the three uses of the game, “the first for use in sacrifices; the second for the entertainment of visitors; and the third for the kitchen generally”. The commentary says “he achieves merit”. Legge finds the reason in the place of this weak line, which “rests under the shadow of the strong and central 5”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 44, Coming to Meet
Fifth line
貞吉，悔亡，无不利，无初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。
Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days. After the change, three days. Good fortune.
good fortune it goes wellremorse disappears regret fades awaynothing that does not further everything is favorable
The fifth line holds the ruling place. A commentator quoted by Legge calls it “the seat of honour, and the place for the lord of Sun, from whom there issue all charges and commands”. The text asks for firm correctness and allows a poor start, since “There may have been no (good) beginning, but there will be a (good) end”. It also sets a rule for changes, with notice given three days before and a second look three days after. The commentary credits the good fortune to “its correct position and its being in the centre”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 18, Repairing What Was Spoiled
Sixth line
巽在床下，喪其資斧，貞凶。
Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his ax. Perseverance brings misfortune.
misfortune it goes badly
The couch of the second line returns, but now the tool is gone. The subject of the line has “lost the axe with which he executed his decisions”. The commentary says that “though occupying the topmost place, his powers are exhausted”. Firmness does not help here, and the text ends in evil. Legge says that evil “would arise from the quality of Sun being carried to excess”. He also notes that for this line he adopts “a change of one character in the received Text”.
When only this line changes, it becomes hexagram 48, The Well
Hexagram 57 unchanging
If none of your six lines is moving, you read the hexagram as a whole. That is the judgment and the image above, without any of the line texts.
The book gives the reason. Lines that do not move are “non-moving lines, which serve only as structural matter in the hexagram, without intrinsic meaning of their own”.
For hexagram 57 unchanging, what remains is the small success of the judgment, with its advantage in moving onward and in seeing the great man, and the image of wind following wind, which asks for orders repeated and affairs carried through.
Questions people ask
What does hexagram 57 mean?
It stands for the wind that enters everywhere and for influence that works by repetition. The judgment names “some little attainment and progress”, and Wilhelm calls it “Success through what is small.”
What does hexagram 57 unchanging mean?
With no moving lines you read only the judgment and the image. For hexagram 57 that is a small success, with advantage in moving onward and in seeing the great man, and the rule of the image, to repeat orders and carry affairs through.
What does hexagram 57 changing to 18 mean?
It is hexagram 57 with its fifth line moving. That line joins good fortune to firm correctness and says “There may have been no (good) beginning, but there will be a (good) end”. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 18.
What does hexagram 57 changing to 48 mean?
It is hexagram 57 with its top line moving. That line shows someone beneath a couch who has “lost the axe with which he executed his decisions”, and it ends in evil. When it changes the hexagram becomes number 48.
Which trigrams form hexagram 57?
The trigram Xun, the wind, placed over itself. Legge says of this trigram that “It symbolises both wind and wood”, and that in this hexagram it stands for the wind.
Why does hexagram 57 speak of only a little success?
Legge reports two answers and is satisfied with neither. One is that the weak first line lies under two strong lines, so that its subject “can accomplish but little”. The other is that the work of the hexagram is “only to correct and improve”.
Richard Wilhelm, translated by Cary F. Baynes. Sun in James Legge. The Gentle in Wilhelm and Baynes.
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