Within the depth-psychology corpus, ‘Small’ operates as a richly charged polarity rather than a simple descriptor of magnitude. Its most sustained treatment appears in the I Ching commentarial tradition, where the Chinese HSIAO — the Small — names a specific orientation of consciousness: flexible, adaptive, responsive to what arises rather than imposing a self-determined agenda. This stands in deliberate dialectical tension with TA, the Great, which represents willful, self-directed purpose. The Taoist interpreters Liu I-ming and the Ritsema/Karcher school develop this polarity into a sophisticated psychology of timing and nurturance: the Small is not weakness but a necessary phase of cultivation, a yin predominance that prepares the ground for yang’s return. Crucially, excess smallness — collapsing into quietism — is as pathological as the absence of the receptive attitude altogether. A second, empirically grounded usage appears in Piff’s social psychology research, where ‘the small self’ names the ego-diminishment characteristic of awe experiences, a state in which self-concern contracts and prosocial behavior expands. Von Franz adds a phenomenological dimension: the feeling function operates precisely in the register of the small — the personal, the proximate, the neglected particular — and the failure to honor small feeling moments produces a cumulative sourness in psychic life. Together these threads reveal that ‘Small’ in this corpus designates not insignificance but a particular mode of attentiveness and self-yielding that carries its own developmental necessity.
Small, HSIAO: little, common, unimportant; adapting to what crosses your path; ability to move in harmony with the vicissitudes of life; contrasts with great, TA, self-imposed theme or goal.
This passage provides the canonical depth-psychological definition of Small as an adaptive, receptive orientation contrasted with willful self-direction, establishing the core polarity structuring the I Ching’s psychology of consciousness.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994thesis
To miss the small is to miss with one’s feeling function. Therefore, personal feeling needs to be expressed in small ways: personal favors, personal sharing, personal remarks about exactly what one likes in the other.
Von Franz argues that the feeling function operates precisely in the register of the small and that neglect of small feeling moments constitutes a fundamental failure of psychic life.
, Lectures on Jung’s Typology, 2013thesis
I feel small or insignificant… I feel like my own day-to-day concerns are relatively trivial… I feel small relative to something more powerful than myself. These 10 items formed a highly reliable index of the small self.
Piff operationalizes the ‘small self’ as a measurable index of ego-diminishment, self-transcendence, and sense of belonging to a greater whole that awe reliably induces.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
The positive association between the awe induction… and generosity became nonsignificant when feelings of a small self were included in the model… awe leads to increased generosity via the small self.
This passage establishes the small self as the mediating psychological mechanism through which awe transforms individual self-concern into prosocial generosity.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015thesis
Though nurturance by the small is developmental, if the smallness is excessive, this is doing things weakly, so that the path of firmness recedes from its proper place, the will is not robust, and one becomes feeble and ineffective.
Liu I-ming warns that the Small’s developmental value depends on maintaining proper balance: excessive smallness becomes pathological quietism that prevents the restoration of vital yang energy.
, The Taoist I Ching, 1986thesis
The correct way of predominance of the small is that action not stray from tranquility, that action be carried out with tranquility; with movement and stillness as one… neither indifferent nor obsessed, keeping a very subtle consistency.
Cleary’s rendering articulates the Small’s proper expression as a dynamic balance between action and tranquility, correcting both extremes of obsession and indifference.
, The Taoist I Ching, 1986supporting
Predominance of the small means that yin exceeds yang… using the small to nurture the great, it is therefore called predominance of the small.
Liu I-ming frames predominance of the Small as a structural hexagram condition in which inward fulfillment and outward receptivity cooperate to cultivate the greater principle.
, The Taoist I Ching, 1986supporting
9. Hsiao Ch’u / The Taming Power of the Small. The six in the fourth place is the constituting ruler of the hexagram, and the nine in the fifth place its governing ruler.
Wilhelm identifies the hexagram Hsiao Ch’u as the structural embodiment of the Small’s taming power, with the yielding yin line serving as the formative principle of restraint.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
9. Hsiao Ch’u / The Taming Power of the Small. The six in the fourth place is the constituting ruler of the hexagram, and the nine in the fifth place its governing ruler.
This parallel Wilhelm translation confirms the Small’s taming function as a structural feature of the hexagram, where feminine yielding constitutes the hex’s governing dynamic.
, The I Ching or Book of Changes, 1950supporting
Does awe influence the small self? … small self ratings were significantly higher in the awe condition (M = 5.27, SD = 1.95), relative to the pride… and neutral conditions.
Piff demonstrates empirically that awe reliably and significantly elevates small-self perception compared to both pride and neutral emotional states.
, Awe, the Small Self, and Prosocial Behavior, 2015supporting
56.Im Sojourning, the small: 56.ImT The small Growing. 57.Im Ground, the small: Growing. 57.ImT That uses the small Growing. 62.Im Sma[ll Surpassing]
Ritsema’s concordance shows Small (HSIAO) as a recurrent qualifier in multiple hexagram judgments, indicating its systematic role as a category of developmental mode throughout the I Ching’s symbolic grammar.
, I Ching: The Classic Chinese Oracle of Change, 1994supporting