Hexagram 9 for love
Hexagram 9 Small Accumulation in love and relationships
Xiao Xu is the wind blowing across the sky: one gentle line at four holding five strong ones, and clouds that gather without yet raining. In a relationship this is the picture of a softer partner quietly steering a more forceful one, or of a bond that is real but has not yet come to anything — feeling thickens, nothing falls. The judgment promises success, but by small means and slowly.
The lines sort the strong partner's responses to that gentle check: one and two turn back gracefully and are well, three pushes through and the couple 'turn their eyes away' — the hexagram's one explicit image of a marriage in trouble. Four is the sincerity that keeps a weak position safe, five the strength that chooses to share. A changing line in the lower trigram asks whether you are the one being restrained and how you take it; one in the upper asks whether your influence is honest and whether, at the top, it has gone on long enough.
The hexagram in brief
Wind over heaven: dense clouds but no rain yet. A small force restrains a great one for now; gather strength quietly, with success in small things.
Refine, prepare and persuade gently; the big move waits until the clouds break.
The judgment
小畜：亨。密雲不雨，自我西郊。Hsiâo Khû indicates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and success. (We see) dense clouds, but no rain coming from our borders in the west.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 小畜 Small Accumulation has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningreturning · one's own path · no blame
- 九二Nine in the second placedrawn back · central · not losing oneself
- 九三Nine in the third placespokes fall out · averted eyes · forcing it
- 六四Six in the fourth placesincerity · ruler of the hexagram · fear departs
- 九五Nine in the fifth placebound together · shared wealth · neighbour
- 上九Nine at the toprain has fallen · moon nearly full · do not advance
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Is hexagram 9, Small Accumulation, a good sign for love?
- Xiao Xu is the wind blowing across the sky: one gentle line at four holding five strong ones, and clouds that gather without yet raining. In a relationship this is the picture of a softer partner quietly steering a more forceful one, or of a bond that is real but has not yet come to anything — feeling thickens, nothing falls. The judgment promises success, but by small means and slowly.
- What does Hexagram 9, 小畜 Small Accumulation, mean?
- Wind over heaven: dense clouds but no rain yet. A small force restrains a great one for now; gather strength quietly, with success in small things.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).