Hexagram 57 as yes or no
Hexagram 57 Yielding (Wind) as a yes-or-no answer
As an answer to a yes-or-no question Xun says 'yes, gently, and keep at it': the Judgment promises small success and favours going somewhere, but it never promises a breakthrough. What you are asking about will yield to patient, repeated pressure, not to a single decisive push; if your plan depends on one bold stroke, the hexagram is telling you to change the plan rather than the goal. Its central teaching is the ruler's formula at line five — prepare the ground, act, then follow up — and its central warning is that softness without a fixed will drifts.
So: proceed, but by increments, and decide once what you are aiming at. If the changing line is in the lower trigram, the answer is 'yes, once you stop wavering' (line one) or 'yes, if your compliance is sincere' (lines two and three). If it is line four or five, the answer is a clear yes. If it is the top line, you have already yielded too much, and the honest answer is to stop and recover your own judgment first.
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
- Does hexagram 57, Yielding (Wind), mean yes or no?
- As an answer to a yes-or-no question Xun says 'yes, gently, and keep at it': the Judgment promises small success and favours going somewhere, but it never promises a breakthrough. What you are asking about will yield to patient, repeated pressure, not to a single decisive push; if your plan depends on one bold stroke, the hexagram is telling you to change the plan rather than the goal. Its central teaching is the ruler's formula at line five — prepare the ground, act, then follow up — and its central warning is that softness without a fixed will drifts.
- 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).