Upper trigram
☴
Wind (Xun) above
Gentle penetration.
FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood
Hexagram 57 of 64
I Ching hexagram 57 ☴☴ The Gentle
I Ching hexagram 57, The Gentle, is wind above, wind below. In brief: penetrating influence, repeated. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 2, 3, 5 and 6 and its broken lines in 1 and 4.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚊⚊⚋⚊⚊ 011011 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Wind over Wind Xun ☴ / Xun ☴
- Every line changed
- № 51 The Arousing
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 189 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☴
Wind (Xun) below
Gentle penetration.
FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood
18 pages · printable
The 2027 Sky Calendar — free PDF
Every retrograde, eclipse, new and full moon of 2027 to the minute, already converted to your city. A month to a page, ready to print.
What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 57
The Judgement
The gentle, penetrating like wind. Small, persistent influence succeeds where force would not, especially with a clear aim and good guidance.
The Image
Wind following wind. The lesson is to repeat instructions steadily so that they spread and are carried out.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 57 in James Legge’s translation
“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.”
“(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
- Line 1 · bottom 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.
- Line 2 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.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows its subject penetrating (only) by violent and repeated efforts. There will be occasion for regret.
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows all occasion for repentance (in its subject) passed away. He takes game for its threefold use in his hunting.
- Line 5 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.
- Line 6 · top 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.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 189 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
The Gentle for a decision
Use steady, subtle persuasion rather than one big push. Know exactly what you want and keep returning to it gently.
I Ching 57 in love and relationships
Quiet understanding that grows through small repeated gestures. Consistency matters more than intensity.
Hexagram 57 at work
Influence, negotiation and culture change. Persistent communication beats a single dramatic memo.
The six lines of hexagram 57
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yang yin yang yang — what each position means.
4 yang and 2 yin lines. Three of the six stand in their proper place, and none of the three pairs answer each other.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Wind below — gentle penetration — is the private, inner side of hexagram 57.
Wind above — gentle penetration — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Both trigrams are Wood, so nothing in the figure pulls against anything else. That makes the reading unusually single-minded — and unusually short of internal correction.
Read as a family
The eldest daughter sits both above and below. The same figure doubled — the purest form of what the trigram describes.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 57
Nuclear hexagram
38 · Opposition
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Dui (Lake) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Li (Fire) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
51 · The Arousing
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Wind over Wind becomes Thunder over Thunder.
Inverse hexagram
58 · The Joyous
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Wind over Wind becomes Lake over Lake.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Wind above, Wind below.
Wind over Wind: gentle penetration meeting gentle penetration.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 57: The Gentle.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/57/
For Wikipedia
{{cite web |title=I Ching Hexagram 57: The Gentle |url=https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/57/ |website=AstroHot |access-date=2026-10-27}}