Why Money Never Seems to Come In: Xun Hexagram Says Wealth Seeps In Like Wind—You First Need Three Small Openings

Xun (The Gentle) is the 57th hexagram, also called Xun Wei Feng (The Gentle Wind).

Two Xun trigrams are stacked one above the other, with wind above and wind below. Wind is invisible, yet it can penetrate every corner.

The original meaning of the character "Xun" is "to enter".

The Hexagram Judgment of Xun has only three lines: Xun, small success. It furthers one to have somewhere to go. It furthers to see the great person.

Small success.

Pay attention to the word "small". It does not mean Xun is an inauspicious hexagram; it means the way gains come with Xun is incremental.

Wind does not topple a tree in one gust; it blows leaves off little by little and pries gaps open gradually.

Applied to wealth, this line is very down-to-earth: money does not rush in; it seeps in.

Most people imagine making money as "one big windfall"—a single project, one golden opportunity, a market boom.

But the Hexagram of Xun says your entry points should be many small ones.

The six lines of Xun describe six states of penetration.

Six at the Beginning: Advance and retreat. It furthers the perseverance of a warrior. Wavering between going forward and pulling back, one needs to be as firm as a warrior.

For wealth, this line means: you want to do this today and that tomorrow, but never actually get started.

Nine in the Second Place: Xun under the bed. The historians and shamans are busy with prayers. Good fortune. No blame. Crouching under the bed, with scribes and shamans offering repeated prayers, it brings good fortune.

This line describes "an extremely humble posture, but frequent, steady actions". Applied to making money, it refers to inconspicuous small businesses done many times a day.

Nine in the Third Place: Frequent Xun. Humiliation. Repeatedly shifting in one's approach leads to humiliation.

"Frequent" means too often. If the direction changes every day, the wind scatters.

Six in the Fourth Place: Remorse disappears. Hunting brings three kinds of game. Regret fades, and one catches three types of prey on a hunt.

This is the only line in Xun that mentions "gain".

Hunting brings three kinds of game—one hunt yields three different types of prey. The key lies in the words "three kinds".

It is not one big catch; it is three different small ones.

Applied to income structure, this is the most practical truth: three small income streams are more stable than one big stream.

Nine in the Fifth Place: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Three days before the Geng day, three days after the Geng day. Good fortune.

No beginning, but an end. The start is rough, but it works out in the end.

This line is the core judgment of Xun: gains from the path of Xun come with a delay. It is perfectly normal to see no results in the first three months.

"Three days before Geng, three days after Geng" means one should set aside time for preparation and follow-through.

Nine at the Top: Xun under the bed. One loses one's money and axe. Perseverance brings misfortune. Crouching under the bed, one loses one's tools and resources; even staying correct leads to misfortune.

"Money and axe" refer to wealth and tools. When one humbles oneself to the extreme, one loses the very means to make a living.

This line is a warning: cutting costs to the point of harming your foundation is inauspicious.

Now, putting all six lines together, the three clear lessons Xun offers for wealth are obvious.

First, have many small entry points.

The fourth line says hunting brings three kinds of game. How many income streams do you have right now? If only one, you are entirely at the mercy of luck.

Adding one more small stream—even if it only brings a few hundred extra yuan a month—matters far more than the money itself: it changes your ability to withstand risks.

Second, do not change direction every day.

The third line says frequent Xun brings humiliation. Many people do not lack effort; their effort is just too scattered. Today they make short videos, tomorrow they start a podcast, the day after they run a public account—each for two weeks, and none of them take off.

Wind must blow steadily in one direction to blow a door open.

Third, do not skimp on your tools.

The top line says one loses one's money and axe. To save money, people sell the very tools they need to make a living.

In today's terms, that means: skipping licensed software to save money, not hiring professionals to save money, skipping necessary investments to save money. The money you save will end up costing you ten times more to fix later.

There is another detail in Xun worth mentioning.

Both the second line and the top line say "Xun under the bed"—the same humble posture, yet one brings good fortune and the other misfortune.

What is the difference? The second line is followed by "the historians and shamans are busy with prayers", while the top line is followed by "one loses one's money and axe".

One is humble but takes constant action; the other is humble but loses its foundation.

Both are low-key, but one is penetrating while the other is depleting itself.

This is the most misunderstood part of Xun. Many people think Xun simply means being gentle, yielding, or keeping a low profile.

But the essence of Xun is not retreat; it is entering.

Does the wind retreat? No, it never does. It keeps moving forward—it just does not smash head-on into obstacles.

So when Xun talks about wealth, it is not about "holding on"—it is about "finding the cracks".

Walls are hard, but cracks are soft. Squeezing through the cracks works better than ramming into the wall.

The fifth line of Xun says, "No beginning, but an end."

This line is for everyone just starting a small business, a side hustle, or creating content.

It is normal to have nothing at the beginning. When the wind first rises, you cannot even tell which way it is blowing.

But as long as you do not change direction, the wind will keep blowing.

One day, it will blow the door open.