Upper trigram
☴
Wind (Xun) above
Gentle penetration.
FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood
Hexagram 9 of 64
I Ching hexagram 9 ☴☰ Small Taming
I Ching hexagram 9, Small Taming, is wind above, heaven below. In brief: restraint by gentle means; small gains only. Its one broken line stands in place 4, counting from the bottom; the other five are solid.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚊⚊⚊⚋⚊⚊ 111011 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Wind over Heaven Xun ☴ / Qian ☰
- Every line changed
- № 16 Enthusiasm
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 76 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☰
Heaven (Qian) below
Creative force.
FamilyFather
ElementMetal
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 9
The Judgement
Small restraints and gentle influence. The clouds gather but no rain falls yet; progress comes from modest, patient steps rather than forceful action.
The Image
Wind moving across the sky. The lesson is to refine small things — manners, skills, details — while larger action is not yet possible.
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 9 in James Legge’s translation
“Hsiâo Khû indicates that (under its conditions) there will be progress and success. (We see) dense clouds, but no rain coming from our borders in the west.”
“(The trigram representing) the sky, and that representing wind moving above it, form Hsiâo Khû The superior man, in accordance with this, adorns the outward manifestation of his virtue.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, shows its subject returning and pursuing his own course. What mistake should he fall into? There will be good fortune.
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows its subject, by the attraction (of the former line), returning (to the proper course). There will be good fortune.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, suggests the idea of a carriage, the strap beneath which has been removed, or of a husband and wife looking on each other with averted eyes.
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows its subject possessed of sincerity. The danger of bloodshed is thereby averted, and his (ground for) apprehension dismissed. There will be no mistake.
- Line 5 The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject possessed of sincerity, and drawing others to unite with him. Rich in resources, he employs his neighbours (in the same cause with himself).
- Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, shows how the rain has fallen, and the (onward progress) is stayed;—(so) must we value the full accumulation of the virtue (represented by the upper trigram). But a wife (exercising restraint), however firm and correct she may be, is in a position of peril, (and like) the moon approaching to the full. If the superior man prosecute his measures (in such circumstances), there will be evil.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 76 — 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.
Small Taming for a decision
You cannot force the outcome yet. Influence it gently, work on details and wait for the conditions that will let bigger moves succeed.
I Ching 9 in love and relationships
Minor frictions and small adjustments. Tact and kindness do more than confrontation at this stage.
Hexagram 9 at work
Incremental progress, polishing and preparing. Big launches are premature; small improvements accumulate.
The six lines of hexagram 9
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yang yang yin yang yang — what each position means.
Five lines are yang and one is yin. Four of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 1–4 answers.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Heaven below — creative force — is the private, inner side of hexagram 9.
Wind above — gentle penetration — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Metal below controls Wood above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.
Read as a family
The eldest daughter sits above and the father below. A child over a parent — an inversion of the expected order, and usually read as a situation where the junior position carries the initiative.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 9
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
16 · Enthusiasm
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Wind over Heaven becomes Thunder over Earth.
Inverse hexagram
10 · Treading
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Wind over Heaven becomes Heaven over Lake.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Wind above, Heaven below.
Wind over Heaven: gentle penetration meeting creative force.
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 9: Small Taming.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/9/
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