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Hexagram 55 — Xiao Chu, The Taming Power of the Small
Chronological no. 55 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 9 · 小畜
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the eldest daughter
the father
Wind moves above Heaven: the image of the small's taming power. Wind lacks the might of thunder or the mass of a mountain — it acts through gentle insistence, through repeated touch rather than shock. This is the figure of discreet influence, one that restrains without constraining. Thus the noble one refines the features of his inner culture: when the greater force is not yet called for, it is through the patient refinement of detail that one prepares what is to come.
The light rein set upon the great design. Every great project knows moments when only a minor restraint is possible, when one can only gently redirect the course of things without radically changing it. This line teaches the virtue of the modest gesture: it is not yet time to act on a grand scale, it is time to adjust, patiently, what can be adjusted.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, force wavers: what acted through firmness hesitates before turning.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 8 — Yu, Enthusiasm (63 − 55 = 8): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 8, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind · 56 — Pi, Standstill
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☴ Xun): 48 — Guan, Contemplation · 49 — Yi, Increase · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth · 52 — Jian, Development · 53 — Jia Ren, The Family · 54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind
Same lower trigram (☰ Qian): 7 — Tai, Peace · 15 — Da Zhuang, The Power of the Great · 23 — Xu, Waiting · 31 — Guai, Breakthrough · 39 — Da Chu, The Taming Power of the Great · 47 — Da You, Possession in Great Measure · 63 — Qian, The Creative
