Hexagram 57 of 64
Wind
巽 Xùn
Upper trigram: 巽 Xùn, wind
Lower trigram: 巽 Xùn, wind
The judgment
小亨。利有攸往。利見大人。
Small success. It is fitting to have somewhere to go. It is fitting to see the great person.
The Great Image
隨風，巽；君子以申命行事。
Wind following wind: this is Wind. In the same way, the noble person repeats commands and carries out affairs.
The six lines
Lines are counted from the bottom. Read a line closely when it changes in your cast.
Line 1 初六
進退，利武人之貞。
Advancing and retreating. It is fitting for a soldier to hold firm.
Going forward and back is the picture here, and a soldier's steadiness is what the line sets against it. Ask what a decisive person in your place would commit to, and for how long.
Line 2 九二
巽在牀下，用史巫紛若，吉无咎。
Bowed low beneath the bed. Scribes and diviners are used in a great flurry. Good fortune. No blame.
Something is hiding low down, under the bed, and the old remedy was to call in the scribes and diviners. Consider who could help you bring a hidden worry out and name it.
Line 3 九三
頻巽，吝。
Yielding again and again. Shame.
Bending once may be courtesy, and this line has someone bending again and again. Ask whether your agreement has become a habit that no one, including you, believes.
Line 4 六四
悔亡，田獲三品。
Regret goes. In the hunt, three kinds of game are taken.
A hunt that brings in three kinds of game fills different needs at once. Consider how one well-chosen effort now could serve several people.
Line 5 九五
貞吉悔亡，无不利。无初有終，先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。
Holding firm brings good fortune. Regret goes. Nothing is unfavorable. No beginning, yet an ending. Three days before the geng day, three days after the geng day. Good fortune.
Geng is a day in the old ten-day cycle, and the line places three days of care on either side of it. Consider how you could prepare before a change and check on it afterward.
Line 6 上九
巽在牀下，喪其資斧，貞凶。
Bowed low beneath the bed. Losing funds and axe. Holding firm brings misfortune.
The same figure under the bed has now lost both means and tools. Ask whether you have yielded so far that you no longer have anything to act with.
What this hexagram says
This hexagram is wind below and wind above, and the trigram also stands for wood. Each half has two solid lines above one broken line. It stands for gentle and persistent entry, the way air gets into every gap and roots work through soil.
The judgment offers a small success and says it is fitting to have somewhere to go and to see the great person. Wind makes little impression at any one moment and has its effect by coming back. Ask which change you could pursue through steady small pressure.
If your question is about persuading a team, a slow change at work or a long conversation in a relationship, tradition reads this as a time for clear direction repeated patiently. The lines also caution against yielding until you have lost your tools and your standing.
A hexagram is a prompt for reflection. It cannot promise a result, and it is no substitute for medical, legal or financial advice.
Where this text comes from
The Chinese follows the Wikisource text of the Zhou Yi (its page for this hexagram, 周易/巽), compared with the Project Gutenberg edition. The Great Image comes from the Wikisource page 周易/大象.
- Wikisource, 周易
Retrieved 2026-11-08
- Project Gutenberg eBook 25501, 易經
Retrieved 2026-11-08
Read this hexagram with its traditional commentaries in our library.
Where the sources differ
- In the judgment, Wikisource (A) reads 利有攸往 (it is fitting to have somewhere to go). Project Gutenberg (B) reads 利攸往, without 有, and punctuates the whole as 小亨，利攸往，利見大人。 The sense is close to the same.
- In lines 九二 and 上九, Wikisource (A) writes 牀 and Project Gutenberg (B) writes 床, and in lines 九二 and 九五 Project Gutenberg writes 無 where Wikisource has 无. These are variant forms of the same words.
The English renderings and the advice are by Cast & Chart. The advice is a modern reading and is not part of the classical text.