Wind following wind: a hexagram of yielding and entering, where small success depends on knowing whom to follow and on not yielding past the point of decision.
Both trigrams are Xun ☴, wind and wood, whose quality is entering; in the family it is the eldest daughter. Zhu Xi sees one yin line lying hidden beneath two yang lines, yielding so as to work its way in, like the wind. Because a yin line leads, success is small; following the strong is favorable, but only when one knows whom to follow.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
巽，小亨，利有攸往，利見大人。
Xun: small success. It is favorable to have somewhere to go. It is favorable to see the great person.
巽 means entering: one yin line lies beneath two yang lines, and by nature it yields and so works its way in. Its image, the wind, carries the same sense of getting in everywhere. Since a yin line is the ruler, the success is small; since yin follows yang, having somewhere to go is favorable. But one has to know whom to follow in order to be correct, Zhu Xi says, and that is why the text adds that it is favorable to see the great person.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
隨風，巽。君子以申命行事。
Wind following wind: Xun. The noble person, accordingly, gives commands again and carries out affairs.
Zhu Xi glosses 隨 as one following another: wind upon wind, gust after gust. The noble person, in the same way, gives instructions more than once and then sees the work carried out.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
進退，利武人之貞。
Advancing, retreating. The firm correctness of a soldier is fitting.
Weak, at the bottom, and ruler of the lower trigram, this line yields to excess, so it wavers between advancing and retreating and cannot decide. If it took on a soldier's firm correctness, Zhu Xi says, it would make up for what it lacks and find what is fitting. Here the remedy for too much yielding is resolve.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
巽在牀下，用史巫紛若，吉，无咎。
Yielding low, beneath the bed. Scribes and shamans are used in profusion. Good fortune. No blame.
A yang line in a yin place, low in the hexagram, feels uneasy: “beneath the bed.” But in a time of yielding, humility is no fault, and the central position keeps it from going too far. Zhu Xi reads the many scribes and shamans as careful, repeated words that make one's meaning fully known, bringing good fortune and no blame. It is also, he adds, a favorable reading for sacrifices offered in full sincerity.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
頻巽，吝。
Yielding again and again. Humiliation.
Too firm and off-center at the top of the lower trigram, this line is not one that can yield. Forcing itself to, it keeps slipping, which Zhu Xi calls the way to humiliation. Deference that is only put on does not hold for long.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
悔亡，田獲三品。
Regret vanishes. In the field, game of three grades is taken.
Without a correspondent, and with firm lines both above and below, this weak line would have reason for regret. But it is yin in a yin place and stands humbly at the bottom of the upper trigram, so regret vanishes. Zhu Xi also takes it as a favorable answer when divining about a hunt: the three grades of game are dried meat for the ritual vessels, food for guests and supplies for the kitchen.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
貞吉，悔亡，无不利。无初有終。先庚三日，後庚三日，吉。
Being correct and firm brings good fortune; regret vanishes. Nothing that is not favorable. No beginning, but an end. Three days before geng, three days after geng: good fortune.
Firm, central and correct yet set in a trigram of yielding, the fifth line has regret at first (“no beginning”), which correctness dispels (“an end”). 庚 (geng), a day-stem, suggests 更, change. Three days before it is ding (丁), hinting at careful instruction (丁寧) before a change; three days after is gui (癸), hinting at weighing (揆) afterward. Zhu Xi sees good fortune for a change made so.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
巽在牀下，喪其資斧，貞凶。
Yielding low, beneath the bed. He loses his provisions and his axe. Even being correct and firm, misfortune.
Here “beneath the bed” means yielding too far, and losing the axe means losing what one uses to cut through and decide. At the top of the hexagram this line has lost its firm yang quality, so, Zhu Xi says, even correctness meets misfortune. The second line used the same words, but its central place kept it from this extreme.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.
Characters corrected in this hexagram — line label: 九二頻巽 → 九三頻巽