Xun · Wind
Overview
— Three-line symbol
Xun places a single yin line beneath two yang lines (011). Its natural images are wind — and wood. The one broken line lies low at the base, gently carrying the two solid lines above. Wind reaches everywhere precisely because it is soft-bodied: it enters from the lowest point and through the finest crack. Wood grows for the same reason — its roots know how to enter the soil. The Shuogua names Xun's virtue ru (入): entering, penetrating.
In the trigram family Xun is the eldest daughter, the first daughter 'obtained' from Kun. The King Wen arrangement places Xun in the southeast, matched to the turn from spring into summer; the Shuogua says all things are 'set in order in Xun' — made fresh and even by the mild wind. The Fuxi arrangement places Xun in the southwest.
Xun's classical images include the straightened cord, the craftsman, white, the long, the tall, advance-and-retreat, indecision, scent, the person of sparse hair and broad brow, and the trader who triples the profit. They circle one theme: what is soft can enter, and what proceeds gradually can endure — the carpenter's line following true, a smell seeping through a room, a merchant reading the market's fine grain. In readings Xun tends to concern penetration, spreading influence, orders passed downward, and step-by-step progress; its shadow side is wavering — advancing and retreating without deciding.
Trigram Virtue
— Shuogua · the defining quality
Entering (入 ru)
Ru is reaching depth through gentleness and gradualness. Xun does not strike; it seeps. Wind transforms things by first lying low and then being everywhere. In human affairs this is patient communication, cumulative groundwork, instructions repeated until they are absorbed as if by nature. Its discipline is softness with a spine: enter well without losing direction; be modest without dissolving into perpetual maybe.
Classical Source
— Shuogua zhuan (Explaining the Trigrams)
Line Structure
— Bottom to top
Bottom to top: yin, yang, yang (011). One broken line lies low at the first position with two solid lines resting on it: softness at the root, firmness on the surface — the exact mirror of Zhen, where yang fires from below. The structure explains Xun's method: it wins not by frontal force but by entering low and persisting until it is everywhere. It also names the weakness — a soft root sways with the wind, so guard against chronic indecision.
In a Reading
— As upper · as lower · overall
As the lower (inner) trigram
As the lower (inner) trigram, Xun marks a modest, adaptive inner stance: you incline toward observing, adjusting, taking your time. That is how complex situations are entered and trust is won — but watch the inner wavering. Yielding should be a strategy, not the absence of a position.
As the upper (outer) trigram
As the upper (outer) trigram, Xun marks influence working by diffusion: rumors, opinion, directives from above, or slow atmospheric pressure spreading through the situation. Move with the wind and use it to carry your message — but identify where it blows from, lest the invisible current steer you instead.
Overall
Xun governs penetration, compliance, and the repeated command. Meeting it usually counsels gradual, communicative, low-friction progress — forcing the pace defeats it. Its warning is 'advance and retreat': too much softness dissolves the capacity to act. Doubled, Xun forms Hexagram 57, whose judgment — 'small attainment; favorable to have somewhere to go, favorable to see the great person' — is the way of gentle advance.
Hexagrams Containing Xun
— Xun as upper or lower trigram
· English renderings and modern readings are original editorial writing, cross-checked against public-domain and classical commentary lineages.
· Hexagram Cast does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· Modern inputs are reproducible; traditional casts can be audited line by line from the stored coin/yarrow trace.