Hexagram 57 for love and relationships: The Gentle

巽 Xùn · Love & relationships

Influence by patience: the same gentle thing, said and done again, until it reaches. Not pressure, not silence. The reading favours it and asks for a direction; gentleness that does not know what it wants becomes drifting.

Wind below, wind above: the gentle doubled, wind following wind. The Gentle describes influence that works by persistence rather than by force: the wind that shapes the rock over years, the idea that spreads by being repeated calmly. The tradition's judgement is modest and clear: success through what is small, it furthers to have somewhere to go, it furthers to see the great person. Gentleness needs a goal or it dissipates; it needs a leader or it wanders. The image is of commands repeated until they are understood. The reading says the situation calls for patient, unhurried, repeated influence, and it warns that gentleness without direction becomes mere yielding.

Advice: Influence gently and repeatedly, toward a clear goal, under good guidance.
Warning: Gentleness without a direction is indecision; penetration pushed too far becomes intrusion.

The changing lines, read for love and relationships

If your cast of Hexagram 57 had changing lines, these are what each one adds to a love question, and where each leads.

Line 1 · changes into 9 Small Taming
Advancing and retreating. The persistence of a warrior furthers. Stop wavering; add a soldier's resolve to your gentleness.
Line 2 · changes into 53 Development
Penetration under the bed. Priests and magicians are used in great number. Good fortune. No blame. Look under the bed; bring hidden influences into the open by every honest means.
Line 3 · changes into 59 Dispersion
Repeated penetration. Humiliation. You have thought about it enough; act.
Line 4 · changes into 44 Coming to Meet
Remorse vanishes. During the hunt three kinds of game are caught. Combine your gentleness with skill and energy; the result is complete.
Line 5 · changes into 18 Work on What Has Been Spoiled
Persistence brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days; after the change, three days. Good fortune. Deliberate before the change and watch after it; the end will be good.
Line 6 · changes into 48 The Well
Penetration under the bed. He loses his property and his axe. Persistence brings misfortune. You have gone too far into it; stop before you lose your means of defence.

Hexagram 57 in full Career Money A decision

Ask the I Ching about your relationship

The topic is pre-selected. The hexagram is not: the coins decide it.

Ask the I Ching →