Xiao Xu · Small Accumulating

The meaning

What the name means Xiao Xu is small accumulation: the strength is small and can only be gathered bit by bit.

The picture Wind over heaven; the clouds have gathered but there is no rain yet, so there is momentum but no form.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about accumulating in small ways. Your strength cannot yet carry a big matter, so do not hurry for results. Do the small things finely, look after the relationships, and speak of the big things when enough has been gathered.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

Your strength is still small and can only be gathered bit by bit. The clouds have gathered but no rain yet: do not rush for results; do the small things finely.

The upper trigram is Wind and the lower is Heaven: Wind above, Heaven below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

亨。密雲不雨，自我西郊。

The image

風行天上，小畜；君子以懿文德。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初九復自道，何其咎？吉。
2. 九二牽復，吉。
3. 九三輿說輻，夫妻反目。
4. 六四有孚，血去惕出，無咎。
5. 九五有孚攣如，富以其鄰。
6. 上九既雨既處，尚德載，婦貞厲。月幾望，君子徵兇。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".