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Hexagram 9 of 64
The Taming Power of the Small
小畜 · Xiǎo Xù
A single yin line holding five yang lines in check. The taming is real and it is temporary, which the classic states in one of its most famous images: dense clouds, no rain.
restraint
small means
accumulation
not yet
- King Wen number
- 9 of 64
- Above
- ☴ Xùn · Wind
- Below
- ☰ Qián · Heaven
- Composition
- Wind over Heaven
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · solid · solid · broken · solid · solid
- Chinese
- 小畜 · Xiǎo Xù
The Judgment
Success. Dense clouds and no rain, out of our own western fields.
Everything needed for the rain is present and it has not fallen. The hexagram lives entirely in that suspended moment.
The Image
Wind moves across the face of heaven: the Taming Power of the Small. So the noble person refines the outward form of their character.
When large action is unavailable, the classic redirects the effort inward, to style, manner and detail.
What it means
Hexagram 9 is one line against five. A single yin in the fourth place holds back the entire creative trigram below it, and the classic is precise about what that can and cannot achieve. Small means can delay great force. They cannot redirect it and they cannot hold it indefinitely.
The image of dense clouds and no rain has escaped the book and become a general phrase for pressure without release, which is fair, because that is exactly the situation. The conditions are gathered, the outcome is inevitable, and nothing is happening yet.
The classic's advice under these conditions is small and specific. Return to your own road. Go back with others rather than alone. Accept that the wagon is not moving. Above all, put the ungrantable ambition aside and work on the thing that is still available to you, which the Image locates in refinement of character and manner.
The top line delivers the rain and then withholds congratulations. The moon is nearly full, the moment of greatest fullness is also the last moment before it turns, and marching out now would waste what the waiting produced.
In a reading
The Taming Power of the Small says the delay is real, minor, and not permanent. Something small is holding up something large, and force will not clear it.
The counsel is to accept the interval and spend it on detail: preparation, craft, relationships, presentation. If the question was whether the obstruction will lift, the answer is yes. If it was whether you can hurry it, no.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Nine at the top
The rain comes, and things settle. Character has been carried this far. For the wife, steadfastness now means danger. The moon is nearly full; if the noble person marches, misfortune.
The rain finally falls and the hexagram immediately warns against pressing on. A moon one night from full is the book's standing image for the moment before decline.
-
Nine in the fifth place
Sincerity that binds fast. Wealth shared with your neighbour.
Influence that spreads by attachment rather than command, and gets richer by not hoarding.
-
Six in the fourth place
Sincerity. The blood departs, the fear goes out. No blame.
The single yin line at its own work. Danger dissolves without a confrontation.
-
Nine in the third place
The spokes come out of the wagon wheel. Husband and wife look away from each other.
Forward motion breaks down, and it shows up as domestic friction. The classic notices that stalled plans are usually felt as irritation with a person.
-
Nine in the second place
Drawn back along with others. Good fortune.
Returning in company. Not being alone in the reversal is what makes it easy.
-
Nine at the beginning
Return to your own road. How could there be blame? Good fortune.
Turning back to what is properly yours. The line treats retreat as simple correctness.
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