#57 巽 Wind – Ride the Trend

 

#57 巽 Wind – Ride the Trend
巽 巽为风 巽上巽下

This hexagram is made up of a double Wind-trigram. The wind follows the shape of a thing and enters through every hole and opening to fill up the whole thing. It represents following and entering. It is agile and adaptable.

Description:

1. 小亨: small success or small progress of the flow
2. 利攸往: it is beneficial to go forward and take action
3. 利见大人: it is beneficial to meet up with people of great influence

Textual Commentary:

彖曰：重巽以申命，刚巽乎中正而志行。柔皆顺乎刚，是以小亨，利有攸往，利见大人。

Double ‘Wind represents the giving of repeated orders. The strong Wind occupies the central and right positions. It executes its mission. The soft others follow this strong one. Hence there is a small smooth flow of progress. It is beneficial to go ahead. It is beneficial to meet up with great people.

Pictorial Commentary: 象曰：随风，巽；君子以申命行事

Following after the wind is known as the ‘Wind’ hexagram. A wise man repeats his order to get things done.

Moral Teachings:

1. Progress comes from having first a central foundation on righteousness.
2. Then it calls for following the righteous orders or commands.
3. When we can find a righteous person to follow, following him anywhere will bring benefits.
4. It will be better to find great people of influence as our leaders and to follow them.
5. When we give orders to get things done, it is better to repeat the orders to ensure the order is clearly understood. A good practice is to give the order and ask the recipient to repeat what he has heard.  We can then correct and clarify what we want to be done. Repeat is not just twice but enough to get clarity and to ensure adherence.

Stage 1 Begin Six: Advancing and retreating; it is beneficial to have warriors that persevere in righteousness and integrity. 初六：进退，利武人之贞。
The pictorial commentary explains that going forward and backward shows that there is doubt about the command. It is beneficial for perseverance in righteousness to ensure the command is faithfully executed. 象曰：进退，志疑也。 利武人之贞，志治也。

The situation begins with doubts and hesitations. Going forward and backward repeatedly. Hence we need people who have strong righteous characters first.  They know what are the right things to do and are able to do them faithfully. Their doubts must be cleared so that there is no wavering when the execution is started. The execution, whether advancing or retreating,  will be faithfully completed.

Stage 2 Second Nine: Wind underneath the bed. Use many historians and forecasters (literally magicians) together. This is good fortune and there is no fault. 九二：巽在床下，用史巫纷若，吉无咎。
The pictorial commentary explains that many people mixed together is obtaining a balanced central position. 象曰：纷若之吉，得中也。

The Wind is trapped under the bed and not going anywhere useful. When we are at a loss, we need to bring in two main groups of people. One group is the historians who study the past and can tell the lessons learned. Another group is the forecasters and scenario planners. They have to tell us what are the possible future scenarios. The future is not just a simple incremental projection of past data. Forecasters need to understand what are the other factors that are involved. Is there a structural change happening? If so, what the future will look like? In uncertain times, no one is wiser than the other, and hence we need to collect the opinions of a large number of people from various domains and jobs. A consolidated view than to be better than the view of a few experts. There is the ‘Delphi’ method of consolidating the views of many people through an iterative process. By consolidating the views of diverse groups of people, we get a more balanced view of things. We could still be wrong like the 2008 financial crisis triggered by sub-prime loans. Most people are caught by surprise. But a few got it right. In hindsight, there are obvious trends. With the key scenarios worked out, we can have better risk management.

Stage 3 Third Nine: Repeated exertions (literally Frequent Wind). There is blame. 九三：频巽，吝。
The pictorial commentary explains that the blame for frequent wind is due to a lack of direction(literally, no will). 象曰：频巽之吝，志穷也。

Stage 2 tells us to get views from diverse groups of people. However, we cannot be stuck in the process of repeated analysis without making a decision to move. After some time, we have to make our decisions and set the direction. Analysis paralysis should be avoided.

Stage 4  Forth Six: There is no need for regrets. Three types of animals are caught in the fields. 六四：悔亡，田获三品。
The pictorial commentary explains that the three types of animals caught are the rewards.  象曰：田获三品，有功也。

Execution of the right direction set in Stage 3 brings rewards here in Stage 4. The upper Wind trigram stands for rooster. Lines 3-4-5 make the Fire trigram which stands for ox and lines 2-3-4 is the Lake trigram which stands for goat. We can take it that we have good success.

Stage 5 Fifth Nine: Perseverance in righteousness causes no regrets. There is nothing not beneficial. Without a good beginning yet it ends well. Before the change consider for three days. After the change, consider for three days. 九五：贞吉悔亡，无不利。 无初有终，先庚三日，后庚三日，吉。
The pictorial commentary explains the fortune of line 5 because he is in the correct central position. 象曰：九五之吉，位正中也。

As long as we keep to the righteous ways, even though we did not start well, we can continue to make changes so that it ends well. Before we start anything, we must consider it for 3 days. After the action, we must also do a post-action review for 3 days. The first phase is the plan for action. The 2nd phase is a reflection on the outcomes of the action so that we can learn from our actions – the wrong to avoid and the right to repeat in future actions. With such careful planning and review(learning) and knowledge expansion, we will have sustainable success in whatever we put our hearts to do. Remember this plan-learn-grow cycle.

Stage 6 Top Nine: Wind under the bed. Loss of the cutting edge of the ax. It is a true disaster. 上九：巽在床下，丧其资斧，贞凶。
The pictorial commentary explains that the wind under the bed represents a lack of leadership at the top. Loss of cutting-edge ax, staying in the present direction will lead to disaster. 象曰：巽在床下，上穷也。 丧其资斧，正乎凶也。

Something got very wrong in the plan-learn cycle of stage 5. Maybe we got too complacent with our long-term success and forgot about the process that brought us to this stage. We have lost our cutting edge and hence going forward without any change will lead to disaster.

Summary:

• The wind is about finding a wise leader, like a sailing boat captain, to set the direction and ride the winds to take the lead.
• Look for one that is righteous first. Look for those with great influence.
• Then follow the wise leaders.
• We need to get our command repeated to ensure it is understood and carried out.
• We need to find the trend, ride the trend, and continue with the plan-learn-grow cycle for sustained success.

Wisdom from the Stage Lines:

1. Wind blowing to and fro. Pick a champion with righteous character and integrity and follow him steadfastly.
2. Wind trapped under the bed.  Not blowing in any direction. Pick the historians and forecasters. Consolidate the views of diverse groups of people to get a balanced and better view of the future. There will be good fortune.
3. Frequent Wind. Avoid analysis paralysis. After some time, one must set a clear direction and move on.
4. Directed Wind. Execution in the right direction brings 3 types of gains.
5. Wind in any direction is OK. Mastering the planning and post-action learning-grow cycle creates sustainable successes.
6. Wind under the bed. Lost our cutting edge and will surely end in disaster. Wake up before it is too late. Go back to the basics of what brings us to our success.

Related Hexagram:
17随 Follow and 57巽 Wind differ in that Follow is at the tail and 57Wind is at the head of the trend. 57 Wind is ‘set the sail‘ – requires you to set the direction clearly and rightly to catch the wind and sail off.

Lim Liat (c) 23/6/2010