巽
xùn

57. The Gentle (The Penetrating, Wind)

䷸
Above
巽 xùn
The Gentle, Wind, Wood
Below
巽 xùn
The Gentle, Wind, Wood

Sun is one of the eight dou­bled tri­grams. It is the el­dest daugh­ter and sym­bol­izes wind or wood; it has for its at­tribute gen­tle­ness, which nonethe­less pen­e­trates like the wind or like grow­ing wood with its roots. The dark prin­ci­ple, in it­self rigid and im­mov­able, is dis­solved by the pen­e­trat­ing light prin­ci­ple, to which it sub­or­di­nates it­self in gen­tle­ness. In na­ture, it is the wind that dis­pers­es the gath­ered clouds, leav­ing the sky clear and serene. In human life it is pen­e­trat­ing clar­i­ty of judg­ment that thwarts all dark hid­den mo­tives. In the life of the com­mu­ni­ty it is the pow­er­ful in­flu­ence of a great per­son­al­i­ty that un­cov­ers and breaks up those in­trigues which shun the light of day.

The Judgement

The gentle. Success through what is small.
It furthers one to have somewhere to go.
It furthers one to see the great man.

Pen­e­tra­tion pro­duces grad­ual and in­con­spic­u­ous ef­fects. It should be ef­fect­ed not by an act of vi­o­la­tion but by in­flu­ence that never laps­es. Re­sults of this kind are less strik­ing to the eye than those won by sur­prise at­tack, but they are more en­dur­ing and more com­plete. If one would pro­duce such ef­fects, one must have a clear­ly de­fined goal, for only when the pen­e­trat­ing in­flu­ence works al­ways in the same di­rec­tion can 57- Sun I The Gen­tle (The Pen­e­trat­ing, Wind) the ob­ject be at­tained. Small strength can achieve its pur­pose only by sub­or­di­nat­ing it­self to an em­i­nent man who is ca­pa­ble of cre­at­ing order.

The Image

Winds following one upon the other:
The image of THE GENTLY PENETRATING.
Thus the superior man
Spreads his commands abroad
And carries out his undertakings.

The pen­e­trat­ing qual­i­ty of the wind de­pends upon its cease­less­ness. This is what makes it so pow­er­ful; time is its in­stru­ment. In the same way the ruler’s thought should pen­e­trate the soul of the peo­ple. This too re­quires a last­ing in­flu­ence brought about by en­light­en­ment and com­mand. Only when the com­mand has been as­sim­i­lat­ed by the peo­ple is ac­tion in ac­cor­dance with it pos­si­ble. Ac­tion with­out prepa­ra­tion of the ground only fright­ens and re­pels.

The Lines

Six at the beginning means:
In advancing and in retreating,
The perseverance of a warrior furthers.

In­born gen­tle­ness is often car­ried to the point of in­de­ci­sive­ness. One does not feel strong enough to ad­vance res­olute­ly. A thou­sand doubts crop up; one is, how­ev­er, not mind­ed to with­draw but drifts in­de­ci­sive­ly to and fro. In such a sit­u­a­tion, a mil­i­tary de­ci­sive­ness is the prop­er thing, so that one res­olute­ly does what order de­mands. Res­olute dis­ci­pline is far bet­ter than ir­res­olute li­cense.

Nine in the second place means:
Penetration under the bed.
Priests and magicians are used in great number.
Good fortune. No blame.

At times one has to deal with hid­den en­e­mies, in­tan­gi­ble in­flu­ences that slink into dark cor­ners and from this hid­ing af­fect peo­ple by« sug­ges­tion. In in­stances like this, it is nec­es­sary to trace these things back to the most se­cret re­cess­es, in order to de­ter­mine the na­ture of the in­flu­ences to be dealt with. This is the task of the priests; re­mov­ing the in­flu­ences is the task of the ma­gi­cians. The very anonymi­ty of such plot­ting re­quires an es­pe­cial­ly vig­or­ous and in­de­fati­ga­ble ef­fort, but this is well worth while. For when such elu­sive in­flu­ences are brought into the light and brand­ed, they lose their power over peo­ple.

Nine in the third place means:
Repeated penetration. Humiliation.

Pen­e­trat­ing re­flec­tion must not be pushed too far, lest it crip­ple the power of de­ci­sion. After a mat­ter has been thor­ough­ly pon­dered, it is es­sen­tial to form a de­ci­sion and to act. Re­peat­ed de­lib­er­a­tion brings fresh doubts and scru­ples, and there­by hu­mil­i­a­tion, be­cause one shows one­self un­able to act.

Six in the fourth place means:
Remorse vanishes.
During the hunt
Three kinds of game are caught.

When a re­spon­si­ble po­si­tion and ac­cu­mu­lat­ed ex­pe­ri­ence lead one to com­bine in­nate mod­esty with en­er­getic ac­tion, great suc­cess is as­sured. The three kinds of an­i­mals re­ferred to served for of­fer­ings to the gods, for feast­ing guests, and for every­day con­sump­tion. When the catch an­swered all three pur­pos­es, the hunt was con­sid­ered es­pe­cial­ly suc­cess­ful.

Nine in the fifth place means:
Perseverance brings good fortune.
Remorse vanishes.
Nothing that does not further.
No beginning, but an end.
Before the change, three days.
After the change, three days.
Good fortune.

In the sit­u­a­tion de­scribed in Ku, work on what has been SPOILED, an en­tire­ly new point of de­par­ture must be set up, where­as here it is only a ques­tion of re­forms. The be­gin­ning has not been good, but the mo­ment has been reached when a new di­rec­tion can be taken. Change and im­prove­ment are called for. Such steps must be un­der­tak­en with stead­fast­ness, that is, with a firm and cor­rect at­ti­tude of mind; then they will suc­ceed, and re­morse will dis­ap­pear. But it must be re­mem­bered that such im­prove­ments re­quire care­ful con­sid­er­a­tion. Be­fore a change is made, it must be pon­dered over again and again. After the change is made, it is nec­es­sary to note care­ful­ly for some time after how the im­prove­ments bear the test of ac­tu­al­i­ty. Such care­ful work is ac­com­pa­nied by good for­tune.

Nine at the top means:
Penetration under the bed.
He loses his property and his ax.
Perseverance brings misfortune.

A man’s un­der­stand­ing is suf­fi­cient­ly pen­e­trat­ing. He fol­lows up in­ju­ri­ous in­flu­ences into the most se­cret cor­ners. But he no longer has the strength to com­bat them de­ci­sive­ly. In this case any at­tempt to pen­e­trate into the per­son­al do­main of dark­ness would only bring harm.