Hexagram 57, line 3
九三Line 3 of Yielding (Wind)
Nine in the third place · 巽 xùn
爻辭 The line text
頻巽，吝。The third line, undivided, shows its subject penetrating (only) by violent and repeated efforts. There will be occasion for regret.
頻巽之吝，志窮也。'The regret arising from the violent and repeated efforts to penetrate' shows the exhaustion of the will.
In plain words
Line three is yang in a yang place at the top of the lower wind, strong and not central, the one line in the hexagram that has no taste for yielding. It yields anyway, 'again and again' (頻巽) — bending because it must, straightening because it wants to, bending again — and the text calls this humiliating. The fault is not softness but softness without conviction: each repeated act of compliance is forced and therefore has to be repeated. The small Image says the will is exhausted (志窮): there is no room left in a nature like this for the penetrating gentleness the hexagram is about.
If this line is changing
Giving way grudgingly, then taking it back, then giving way again wears you out and persuades no one; either comply wholeheartedly or state your position once.
Where the line stands
- A solid line, yang — written 九 (nine), the number of an old yang line that moves when cast.
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
- It belongs to the lower trigram 巽 Xun (the Gentle) (wind).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 6: both lines are yang, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
巽 Yielding (Wind) becomes ䷺ 59 渙 Dispersing
Wind over water: dispersing. Success; the king approaches the temple; favourable to cross the great river — scattering rigidity, selfishness and division so that people regroup around something shared.
What it becomes59 · 渙 DispersinghuànThe six lines of 巽 Yielding (Wind)
- 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
Read 巽 Yielding (Wind) for a question about
Questions about this line
- What does Nine in the third place of hexagram 57, Yielding (Wind), mean?
- Line three is yang in a yang place at the top of the lower wind, strong and not central, the one line in the hexagram that has no taste for yielding. It yields anyway, 'again and again' (頻巽) — bending because it must, straightening because it wants to, bending again — and the text calls this humiliating. The fault is not softness but softness without conviction: each repeated act of compliance is forced and therefore has to be repeated. The small Image says the will is exhausted (志窮): there is no room left in a nature like this for the penetrating gentleness the hexagram is about.
- What does hexagram 57 become when line 3 changes?
- Yielding (Wind) becomes hexagram 59, 渙 Dispersing: Wind over water: dispersing. Success; the king approaches the temple; favourable to cross the great river — scattering rigidity, selfishness and division so that people regroup around something shared.
- Is line 3 of Yielding (Wind) in its correct place?
- It is in its correct place (當位): a yang line in an odd position or a yin line in an even one, which the tradition reads as a line at ease where it stands.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).