Scryway

Hexagram 57

巽 Xùn · Gentle penetration

Legge: Sun

☴ Wind, wood (Xùn) above ☴ Wind, wood (Xùn)

Scryway summary

Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.

Wind following wind. Persistent, gentle influence that reaches everywhere.

The judgment

Sun intimates that (under the conditions which it denotes) there will be some little attainment and progress. There will be advantage in movement onward in whatever direction. It will be advantageous (also) to see the great man.

The image

(Two trigrams representing) wind, following each other, form Sun. The superior man, in accordance with this, reiterates his orders, and secures the practice of his affairs.

The lines, bottom to top

  1. Bottom line, broken

    The first line, divided, shows its subject (now) advancing, (now) receding. It would be advantageous for him to have the firm correctness of a brave soldier.

  2. Second line, solid

    The second line, undivided, shows the representative of Sun beneath a couch, and employing diviners and exorcists in a way bordering on confusion. There will be good fortune and no error.

  3. Third line, solid

    The third line, undivided, shows its subject penetrating (only) by violent and repeated efforts. There will be occasion for regret.

  4. Fourth line, broken

    The fourth line, divided, shows all occasion for repentance (in its subject) passed away. He takes game for its threefold use in his hunting.

  5. Fifth line, solid

    The fifth line, undivided, shows that with firm correctness there will be good fortune (to its subject). All occasion for repentance will disappear, and all his movements will be advantageous. There may have been no (good) beginning, but there will be a (good) end. Three days before making any changes, (let him give notice of them); and three days after, (let him reconsider them). There will (thus) be good fortune.

  6. Top line, solid

    The sixth line, undivided, shows the representative of penetration beneath a couch, and having lost the axe with which he executed his decisions. However firm and correct he may (try to) be, there will be evil.

Quoted from James Legge (trans.), The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1882. Public domain. The image is from Legge’s Appendix II. Words in parentheses are Legge’s additions.