Hexagram 57
The Gentle
巽Xùn
☴ Wind above, ☴ Wind below
Below wind, above wind: the same soft breath repeats itself without ceasing, and precisely that repetition turns the unassuming into a force that penetrates the smallest crack.
The JudgmentThe gentle: success through what is small. It is worthwhile to go somewhere; it is worthwhile to see the great man. The wind moves no mountains and yet reaches everywhere: small, persistent influence with a clear aim achieves what no storm can.
The ImageWinds following one another: the image of the gentle. Thus the noble one spreads his commands and carries out his affairs. A single gust blows over; wind that persists shapes the landscape. This is how lasting authority works: not one thunderclap, but the same clear message, over and over, until it has reached every corner.
InterpretationWind upon wind: the gentle that penetrates through persistence. It appears when something must change that cannot be forced: a culture, a habit, a conviction, a relationship. The method is the wind's: small, steady, everywhere, and always in the same direction. Say it kindly, and say it again; do it small, and do it every day. Two conditions guard the difference between penetrating and blowing away: a clear aim (wind without direction is a draft) and someone to orient yourself by (it is worthwhile to see the great man). The pitfall of the gentle is endlessness: if all you do is deliberate, you stopped blowing long ago. Choose your direction sharply once, then hold the same course for years.
Place in the sequenceAfter 56, The Wanderer, comes this sign: the traveller has no place to take him in, and only the gentle, which adapts and slips inside, finds entry everywhere again. It forms a pair with 58 · The Joyous.
Nuclear hexagram
The nuclear hexagram of The Gentle is 38 · Opposition: Opposition: force no grand reconciliation but work in small things, for out of difference well borne, kinship later grows. It is formed from the inner lines and shows the hidden core of the situation.
The six lines
These texts belong to changing lines in a reading, from the bottom up.
Six at the beginning
In advancing and retreating, the perseverance of a warrior brings reward.
The doubt of the gentle: forward, back, forward again, like wind that keeps turning. Indecision is the occupational disease of this sign, and the medicine is a warrior's discipline: make one decision and carry it out, period. Not because the decision is sacred, but because deciding is a muscle you train: start with small, quick choices and stick to them. If you never break the rocking motion, it rocks you to sleep.
Nine in the second place
Penetrating beneath the bed.
Priests and magicians are called in great numbers: good fortune, no blame. Something is at work beneath the surface: hidden resistances, unspoken fears, influences sheltering under the bed. Shine light on them, thoroughly, and if need be with help from those skilled in it: today's priests and magicians are called advisers, therapists, confidants. What is given a name loses its power; vague discontent and quiet sabotage rule only as long as they go unnamed. Dare to look under the bed: rarely does anything lie there that can withstand the light.
Nine in the third place
Repeated penetrating:
shame. Investigation overshooting itself: weighing, considering, weighing again, until the decision is worn out before it is made. Thorough thinking should happen once, twice at most; entering the third round is not greater care but flight from the choice. The people around you see it, and that is where the shame comes from: endless deliberation undermines the very authority it was meant to protect. Close the file and act; perfect certainty is not coming anyway.
Six in the fourth place
Remorse vanishes.
In the hunt, threefold game is taken. The reward of the gentle grown mature: modesty paired with decisiveness, and the hunt yields threefold. Unite experience, tact and perseverance, and you catch everything at once: the goal is reached, the people remain won over, and your own remorse over earlier hesitation dissolves. This is the proof that gentleness is no weakness: at its best it is the most complete form of effectiveness, one that breaks nothing along the way.
Nine in the fifth placeruling line
Perseverance brings good fortune; remorse vanishes, nothing that does not further.
No beginning, but an end. Three days before the change, three days after the change: good fortune. Reform by the book: no demolition and rebuilding, but improvement of what stands: no beginning, but a good end. And the recipe is surprisingly precise: three days before the change (considering, announcing, preparing) and three days after (testing, adjusting, securing). Most changes fail in those second three days, when no one is watching anymore. Take both the run-up and the aftercare seriously, and the reform will last.
Nine at the top
Penetrating beneath the bed:
he loses his possessions and his axe. Perseverance brings misfortune. Investigation beyond its limit: keep probing the dark under the very last bed while lacking the strength to intervene, and you lose both: your possessions (what you had built) and your axe (your capacity to act and to discern). Fathoming things is preparation for a deed; make it a dwelling place and it turns to poison. If you have analysed everything three times over and still do not act, stop digging: the next spade goes through your own foundation.