One yin line holds back five yang: dense clouds gather but no rain falls yet. Things can go through, though the restraint is slight and its effects still pending.
Heaven ☰, whose quality is strength, lies below wind ☴, whose quality is entering. Zhu Xi reads the name as the small, meaning yin, holding back the strong: one soft line restrains five firm ones. A soft hold can bind but not grip fast, so the restraint is slight, like dense clouds that have not yet turned to rain.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
小畜，亨。密雲不雨，自我西郊。
Xiao Xu. Success. Dense clouds, no rain, coming from my western outskirts.
Xiao here means yin and xu means holding back. The single yin line, the fourth, holds back all five yang lines, and since yin restraining yang can bind but not hold fast, the restraint is small. Strong within and gentle without, with the second and fifth lines firm and central, the hexagram's aims can be carried out, so things go through. Yet the holding has not peaked and nothing has been given out: clouds that do not rain. The clouds are yin and the west a yin direction. The speaker, Zhu Xi says, is King Wen, who while developing the Yi at Youli regarded Qi-Zhou as the west: exactly a time of small restraint.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
風行天上，小畜。君子以懿文德。
Wind moves across the sky: Xiao Xu. The noble person, accordingly, gives a fine finish to cultured virtue.
Wind has breath but no body, Zhu Xi says, so it can hold things back only briefly: hence the small restraint. Refining cultured virtue means working on its finish, not yet storing it deep or spreading it far. The image is of modest cultivation while larger action waits.
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, yang (初九)changing line in the shared reading
復自道，何其咎，吉。
Returning by its own path. What blame could there be? Good fortune.
The yang lines of the lower trigram belong above by nature and want to rise, but the yin line holds them back. The first line, correct at the bottom and still far from that yin line, keeps itself upright and is not caught, even though the fourth line is its partner. Zhu Xi sees it going back along its own way: no blame, and good fortune.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
牽復，吉。
Linked with another, it returns. Good fortune.
All three yang lines share one aim. The second line has moved closer to the yin, but because it is firm and central it can join hands with the first line and go back with it. Zhu Xi calls this, too, the way of good fortune. In company, the return stays possible even this close to the restraint.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
輿說輻，夫妻反目。
The cart sheds its spokes. Husband and wife glare at each other.
The third line also wants to rise, but it is firm, off-center and pressed right against the yin line, which is not its partner. Zhu Xi says the mutual attraction of yin and yang ties it down so it cannot move: a cart that has lost its spokes. Its stubborn will cannot rest with that, so it quarrels, hence the glaring couple. He reads it as a warning of no progress and open friction.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
有孚，血去惕出，无咎。
There is sincerity. The threat of blood passes and fear departs. No blame.
One yin line holding back many yang lines would normally be exposed to harm and dread. But the fourth line is soft, yielding and correct, open within the gentle trigram, and the two yang lines above lend it help. Zhu Xi reads this as sincerity making the danger of injury pass and the fear lift, so no blame is fitting for one who has that virtue.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
有孚攣如，富以其鄰。
There is sincerity, holding them fast. Rich, it draws its neighbors along.
Working together, the three lines of the gentle trigram hold back the strong one below, and Zhu Xi calls them neighbors. The fifth line, central and in the seat of honor, has the power to act and to draw in those above and below it, so its sincerity binds them closely and its ample strength leads them. Yi, he says, has the sense of the Chunqiu phrase for leading a certain army: to direct others as one wishes.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
既雨既處，尚德載，婦貞厲。月幾望，君子征凶。
The rain has come; things have come to rest. Esteemed virtue has built up to the full. For the wife, even correct firmness means danger. The moon is nearly full. For the noble person, setting out brings misfortune.
Restraint has peaked and is complete: yin and yang are in harmony, so the rain falls and things settle. Zhu Xi explains this as yin's virtue being honored until it has piled up to the brim. Yin placed over yang is risky even when correct, hence the wife's danger; and once yin is full and stands against yang, the noble person should not set out. The nearly full moon fits that fullness. He calls the warning a deep one.
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.