Hexagram 57 for work
Hexagram 57 Yielding (Wind) for work and career
The Great Image of Xun is the superior person who 'reiterates commands and carries out affairs': wind following wind, a message delivered, then delivered again, until it has penetrated every corner. For work this is the hexagram of follow-through and of influence without authority — the memo that has to be repeated, the negotiation that advances by patient restatement, the project that succeeds because someone keeps gently pressing. The Judgment adds two conditions: it is favourable to have somewhere to go, and to see the great person, meaning that gentleness needs a destination and a leader to serve.
The ruling line, five, gives the method: announce a change three days before, confirm it three days after. The lines below show the ways softness goes wrong at work — hesitation, compliance given through clenched teeth, humility that loses its tools. A changing line in the lower trigram usually means your approach is right but your resolve is not yet firm; one in the upper trigram asks whether you are still leading or only accommodating.
The hexagram in brief
Wind upon wind: the gentle that penetrates everywhere. Small success; favourable to have somewhere to go and to see the great man — persistent gentle influence rather than force.
Repeat your message softly and consistently, and give your gentleness a clear direction, or it becomes mere drifting.
The judgment
巽：小亨，利有攸往，利見大人。Sun intimates that (under the conditions which it denotes) there will be some little attainment and progress. There will be advantage in movement onward in whatever direction. It will be advantageous (also) to see the great man.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 巽 Yielding (Wind) has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningwavering · advance and retreat · soldier's resolve
- 九二Nine in the second placebeneath the bed · humble sincerity · centred
- 九三Nine in the third placeforced compliance · repeated yielding · exhausted will
- 六四Six in the fourth placeregret vanishes · threefold catch · merit
- 九五Nine in the fifth placethe ruler's command · three days before and after · good end
- 上九Nine at the topyielding exhausted · lost axe · no decision left
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 57, Yielding (Wind), mean for a career question?
- The Great Image of Xun is the superior person who 'reiterates commands and carries out affairs': wind following wind, a message delivered, then delivered again, until it has penetrated every corner. For work this is the hexagram of follow-through and of influence without authority — the memo that has to be repeated, the negotiation that advances by patient restatement, the project that succeeds because someone keeps gently pressing. The Judgment adds two conditions: it is favourable to have somewhere to go, and to see the great person, meaning that gentleness needs a destination and a leader to serve.
- What does Hexagram 57, 巽 Yielding (Wind), mean?
- Wind upon wind: the gentle that penetrates everywhere. Small success; favourable to have somewhere to go and to see the great man — persistent gentle influence rather than force.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).