The taming power of the small — gentle restraint holding back great force.
Only modest influence is available, so you can refine and restrain, not yet command. Dense clouds gather but no rain falls — pressure builds before release. Work patiently with small adjustments.
restraintpatiencesmall stepsaccumulation
The Taming Power of the Small places Wind (gentle, penetrating) above Heaven (strong, creative). The interplay of these two trigrams gives the hexagram its character.
The Classical Textoriginal Chinese
The Judgment · 卦辞
亨。密云不雨，自我西郊。
The Image · 大象
风行天上，小畜；君子以懿文德。
The Six Lines · 爻辞
- 初九复自道，何其咎，吉。象曰：复自道，其义吉也。
- 九二牵复，吉。象曰：牵复在中，亦不自失也。
- 九三舆说辐，夫妻反目。象曰：夫妻反目，不能正室也。
- 六四有孚，血去惕出，无咎。象曰：有孚惕出，上合志也。
- 九五有孚挛如，富以其邻。象曰：有孚挛如，不独富也。
- 上九既雨既处，尚德载，妇贞厉。月几望，君子征凶。象曰：既雨既处，德积载也。君子征凶，有所疑也。
The judgment, image and line texts above are quoted from the original Zhou Yi. A modern Chinese translation of the full classic is available on the original-text page.