Hexagram 9: Xiao Xu

Wind over Heaven · 风天小畜 · Tendency: Inauspicious

Structure

• Number: 9 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷈
• Upper trigram: Xun (Wind)
• Lower trigram: Qian (Heaven)
• Lines: yang yang yang yin yang yang (bottom to top)

The statement

亨。密云不雨。自我西郊。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates that strength is still accumulating. You want to advance but are temporarily held back by small obstacles. It is suitable for refining details and waiting for conditions to mature. Do not be anxious because of slow progress, nor rush forward with only small gains.

A Buddhist reading

Xu carries two senses, obstruction and nourishing. Meet the blockage without blame or complaint, nourish yourself until it dissolves, and the road opens. Ouyi Zhixu piles up images to show that an old obstacle is not simply an enemy: a stone does not stop a wheel, a bell sounds only when struck, a blade sharpens on the whetstone, and pines look finer under frost and snow. He prizes the slow result over the easy one. The top line adds a warning worth keeping: when an obstacle clears, a pleasant lightness appears, and savoring it breeds inflated self regard.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous: Hexagram 8: Bi
• Next / Inverted: Hexagram 10: Lvthe whole figure turned upside down
• Opposite: Hexagram 16: Yuevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 38: Kuilines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.