Hexagram 57, line 4
六四Line 4 of Yielding (Wind)
Six in the fourth place · 巽 xùn
爻辭 The line text
悔亡，田獲三品。The fourth line, divided, shows all occasion for repentance (in its subject) passed away. He takes game for its threefold use in his hunting.
田獲三品，有功也。'He takes game in his hunting, enough for the threefold use of it:'—he achieves merit.
In plain words
Line four is yin in a yin place, correct, the first line of the upper wind and the minister standing just below the ruler at five. A weak line that rides on the strong line three would normally expect regret, and the text begins by cancelling it: 'regret disappears.' Then it pictures a hunt that 'takes game of three kinds' — in the old reading, enough for the sacrifice, for guests and for the kitchen — the yield of gentle penetration applied where it belongs, carrying the orders of the one above into the world. The small Image says simply that this line achieves something (有功): of the six, it is the one where yielding turns into results.
If this line is changing
Serve the direction set above you with your whole skill and the results will be real and plural; this is the moment to carry things through rather than to question them.
Where the line stands
- A broken line, yin — written 六 (six), the number of an old yin 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 upper trigram 巽 Xun (the Gentle) (wind).
- It has no correspondence (無應) with line 1: both lines are yin, so this line must find its support in its neighbours or in itself.
之卦 When this line moves
巽 Yielding (Wind) becomes ䷫ 44 姤 Encounter
Wind under heaven: one yin line arriving beneath five yang. An encounter — the woman is strong; do not marry her. Something small and tempting enters; watch it from the start.
What it becomes44 · 姤 EncountergòuThe 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 Six in the fourth place of hexagram 57, Yielding (Wind), mean?
- Line four is yin in a yin place, correct, the first line of the upper wind and the minister standing just below the ruler at five. A weak line that rides on the strong line three would normally expect regret, and the text begins by cancelling it: 'regret disappears.' Then it pictures a hunt that 'takes game of three kinds' — in the old reading, enough for the sacrifice, for guests and for the kitchen — the yield of gentle penetration applied where it belongs, carrying the orders of the one above into the world. The small Image says simply that this line achieves something (有功): of the six, it is the one where yielding turns into results.
- What does hexagram 57 become when line 4 changes?
- Yielding (Wind) becomes hexagram 44, 姤 Encounter: Wind under heaven: one yin line arriving beneath five yang. An encounter — the woman is strong; do not marry her. Something small and tempting enters; watch it from the start.
- Is line 4 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).