The Book of Changes · Xiao Xu

Hexagram 9: The Taming Power of the Small

Wind (wind, and wood growing) over Heaven (the sky)

Something small restraining something large, and doing it by persistence rather than strength. The tradition is clear that this holds only for now: the restraint is real and it is temporary.

The image

Wind moves across the sky and does not stop it. The reading is that a person refines the small things, because that is what is actually within reach.

Wind, above

Penetration, patience, and what works by not stopping.

Heaven, below

Force, and the initiative that does not wait to be asked.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1Returning to your own road. No blame in going back.
2. Line 2Drawn back, and willingly. Being talked out of it was correct.
3. Line 3The wheels come off the wagon; the couple stare at each other. Force applied where agreement was needed.
4. Line 4Sincerity clears the blood and the fear goes with it.
5. Line 5Held by loyalty rather than by arrangement, and better off for what the neighbour has.
6. Line 6The rain has come and it stops. Push now and it turns.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 9 is Gate 9, Focus.