Scene Description
Image Symbolism
Reading the Picture
Xun is gentle penetration, like wind that gets in everywhere. The picture is about things that come from above, a gift, news and help, and about receiving them with the right kind of yielding.
Start with the gift: a standing official holds out a folded robe, and another man kneels to receive it. The Image Symbolism reads this as an honour conferred, something first broken and later made whole. Kneeling to receive is the posture of Xun itself, yielding rather than grasping. Above, in the clouds, a wild goose carries a letter: unexpected good news.
Then look up the slope at the tiger. At lower left a man sits calmly below it, unaware of the danger. At upper right an archer, bow on his back and hand raised, has loosed an arrow that flies past the tiger as it walks away. The text says the shot strikes; in the drawing the arrow is still in the air. The Image Symbolism reads the archer as a benefactor who rescues you and the departing tiger as danger passing, and adds that a strong person should step back once the work is done.
Both trigrams are Wind, ☴ over ☴: wind following wind, the image of commands repeated until they are carried out. The kneeling man echoes the second line’s humility, fortunate when it is sincere. The top line warns that compliance pushed too far, ‘beneath the bed’, loses one’s means and resolve.
- Work
- If an instruction or offer comes from above, consider receiving it graciously and then following through steadily. If you give instructions, ask whether you have repeated them clearly enough.
- Relationships
- If you tend to give way, ask whether your yielding is sincere or comes from fear of conflict. Gentleness helps most when it keeps its backbone.
- Timing
- Small, steady steps go well now. If you sense danger nearby, consider quietly stepping back and letting help or news arrive in its own time.
Line Statements
Listed from the bottom line to the top line.
- First six: Advance and retreat. A warrior's steadfastness is beneficial.
- Nine in the second place: Submission beneath the bed. Employing recorders and shamans in numbers. Good fortune, no blame.
- Nine in the third place: Repeated submission. Regret.
- Six in the fourth place: Regret disappears. The hunt yields three kinds of game.
- Nine in the fifth place: Steadfastness brings good fortune; regret disappears, nothing unfavorable. No beginning, but an ending. Three days before Geng and three days after Geng. Good fortune.
- Top nine: Submission beneath the bed; losing resources and axe. Steadfastness is inauspicious.
Meaning of the Hexagram
Translated from the Chinese 人间道 commentary with AI assistance; translator notes appear in brackets.
“The Gentle: small success. It is beneficial to have somewhere to go; it is beneficial to see a great person.”
Whoever attains the way of gentle compliance can have small success. So, speaking of the compliant nature of softness: if one can be like this, it is beneficial to advance, and one can meet a person of rank, who will surely help.
“The doubled Gentle serves to repeat commands. The firm penetrates to the central and correct, and its will is carried out; the soft all comply with the firm. Therefore small success. It is beneficial to have somewhere to go; it is beneficial to see a great person.”
In the doubled hexagram of Xun (The Gentle) there is the image of compliance above and compliance below. If those above comply with the middle way in issuing commands, and those below comply with the commands and obey them, there will surely be good fortune. Therefore the noble person repeats his commands, and in this he understands Xun. If one knows how to comply with the firm and is central and correct, then even with insufficient talent one can have small success. If one attains the way of gentle compliance, there is nowhere one cannot enter, and one can go out into the world and see the great person.
“Winds following one another: The Gentle. The noble person accordingly repeats his commands and carries out his affairs.”
Things move as the wind moves them; this is the way of Xun. The noble person observes the image of Xun and understands the importance of repeating orders. When government orders are issued, those below follow those above in compliance, and when above and below both comply, that is the image of the doubled Xun. To make them take real effect from the very start, the commands are repeated.
“Advance and retreat. A warrior’s steadfastness is beneficial.”
In the time of gentle compliance, in a low position and with a soft yin nature, one is surely fearful and uneasy and does not know whom to follow. So at this time it is beneficial only for military officers and people in military posts; their compliance will surely be fortunate.
“Advance and retreat: the will is in doubt. A warrior’s steadfastness is beneficial: the will is brought to order.”
Not knowing where to settle in advancing or retreating, the will is surely doubtful and fearful. Therefore firm-hearted obedience benefits people in military posts, who do not develop divided loyalties.
“Submission beneath the bed. Employing recorders and shamans in numbers. Good fortune, no blame.”
The ninth in the second place shows firmness in a yin position, with the image of gentle compliance outside. It refers to a time when a person is excessively humble and compliant; this comes either from fear or from flattery, and neither is correct. Yet although it is not correct propriety, it can still keep shame at a distance and remove resentment and rifts, and so it can be fortunate. It is like the recorders and shamans who use sincerity to reach the spirits: if their sincerity gets through, there can also be no fault.
“The good fortune of ‘in numbers’: it attains the centre.”
If a person can attain the middle way and also act with utmost sincerity, others will surely trust him; there is good fortune and no blame.
“Repeated submission. Regret.”
The ninth in the third place is at the top of the lower trigram. A firm line occupies it, with a firm and overbearing nature. In the time of gentle compliance it is not truly able to comply but does so reluctantly, so it is bound to fail somewhere. After failing it complies again and again, and after complying again it fails again; this is lowly and regrettable.
“The regret of repeated submission: the will is exhausted.”
A firm yang talent is by nature not able to be gently compliant. Now, in the time of doubled Xun, circumstances do not let it fulfil its will, and it has to comply, so it is bound to fail somewhere, and its will is surely hard-pressed and exhausted.
“Regret disappears. The hunt yields three kinds of game.”
The sixth in the fourth place is simply a soft yin line in a yin place. This position sits above the lower trigram: it holds a high position yet knows how to comply with those below. If a person can conduct himself this well, he surely need not fear ruin. It is like a harvest from the hunt that reaches both those above and those below. If one can be like this, why worry? Regret disappears, and there is achievement besides.
“The hunt yields three kinds of game: there is achievement.”
Xun can reach through to both above and below. Like the yield of the hunt, it benefits both those above and those below; this is the achievement of gentle compliance.
“Steadfastness brings good fortune; regret disappears, nothing unfavorable. No beginning, but an ending. Three days before Geng and three days after Geng. Good fortune.”
A yang line in a yang position, in the ruler’s place: this is the master of Xun. His commands surely accord with the central and correct way, and none of the common people under heaven fail to comply. If he can be like this from beginning to end, there is surely nothing unfavourable. When a command has been issued and needs to be changed, if one corrects what was not good at the start and achieves what is good at the end, then the change is acceptable; but the middle way within it must remain the same from beginning to end.
“The good fortune of the nine in the fifth place: its position is correct and central.”
The honoured nine in the fifth place can occupy it with good fortune because it attains the central and correct way; both going too far and falling short are not good.
“Submission beneath the bed; losing resources and axe. Steadfastness is inauspicious.”
The bed is where a person rests at ease. To be beneath the bed has the sense of going beyond ease. The ninth is the extreme of Xun: excessively soft and compliant, it loses its firm decisiveness and will surely lose its dwelling place; it loses itself. Measured against the correct way, this is misfortune.
“Submission beneath the bed: at the top, it is exhausted. Losing resources and axe: by what is correct, it is misfortune.”
At the very top the line is by nature yang and firm, yet now it is excessively gentle and compliant. It will surely lose the correct way; this is the path of misfortune.
Show the Chinese original (人间道)
巽：小亨。利有攸往，利见大人。 巽顺之道，得之可以小亨。故论柔之顺性，能如此，利往进，可见贵人，必助。
重巽以申命。刚巽乎中正而志行，柔皆顺乎刚，是以小亨。利有 攸往，利见大人。 巽之重卦，有上顺下亦顺象，苟能上顺中道以出命，下顺命而服从，则必吉。故君子申复 命令，乃知巽也。能知顺乎刚且中正，即令才不足亦可以小亨。能得巽顺之道，必无往不入可 出世见大人也。
随风，巽。君子以申命行事。 物之随风而动，巽之道也，君子观巽象，乃知重复申令之重要，能有政令，上随下以顺服， 上下皆顺，即重巽之象，为始切实，故重申命令。
进退，利武人之贞。
居巽顺之时，又处卑下，以阴柔之质，必 畏而不安，无所适从，故此时惟利于武官，从 武职之人，其巽赈必吉也。
进退志疑也，利武人之贞， 志治也。 进退不知所安，其志必疑且惧，故坚心服 从，利于武职之人，不生贰心。
巽在床下，用史巫纷若，吉， 无咎。 九二乃示刚居阴位，外又有巽顺之象，意 即人有过于卑顺之时，不是恐惧就是谄媚，皆 非正也。但其虽非正礼，亦可远耻辱，去 怨隙，亦可为吉，就如同用诚意来通于神明之 史巫，其诚意能通，亦可无过。
纷若之吉，得中也。
人能得中道，亦以至诚，则人必信之，吉 而无咎。
频巽，吝。 九三为下卦之上极，刚居之，有刚亢之质， 居巽顺之时，非真能顺，乃出于勉强为之，必 有所失，失后又频顺，频顺又再失，亦可卑吝 也。
频巽之吝，志穷也。 阳刚之才，本非能顺巽，今处重巽之时， 因势不能遂志，又必须以顺，故必有所失，其 志必困穷。
悔亡，田获三品。 六四仅乃阴柔居阴，此位居下之上，乃居 上位而知顺下，人能如此善处，必可不虑亡。 犹田之收获能遍及上下，能如此，何虑悔亡更 且有功。
田获三品，有功也。 巽能通于上下，如田之获，上下受惠，此 巽顺之功。
贞吉，悔亡无不利，无初有 终，先庚三日，后庚三日，吉。 阳居阳位又处君位，此为巽之主，其命令， 必合于中正之道，天下黎民莫不顺从。能始终 如此，必无往不利，如命令之出，有须变更时， 改始之不善，成终之善，则可变更，其中道，
必始终如一方可。
九五之吉，位正中也。
九五之尊，能处之吉，乃因能得中正之道， 过与不及皆不善。
巽在床下，丧其资斧，贞凶。
床，人之所安处也。今在床下，有过于安 之义，九为巽极，乃过于柔顺，乃丧失刚断， 必失居所，乃自失也，对正道而言为凶。
巽在床下，上穷也，丧其资 斧，正乎凶也。 居上之极本为阳刚，今却过于巽顺，必失 正道，为凶道。