Upper Trigram
乾 Qián
Heaven — Creative
Lower Trigram
離 Lí
Fire — Clinging
Classical Texts
The Judgment
Fellowship in the open—success. It furthers one to cross the great water. The perseverance of the person of moral stature furthers. True fellowship must be based on universal concern, not private interest. Cliques don't count.
The Lines
Line 1
Fellowship at the gate. No blame. People meet at the entrance—the connection is beginning. No exclusive ties yet, so no blame.
Line 2
Fellowship within the clan. Humiliation. When fellowship narrows to only your own kind, you've already failed the universal principle. This brings regret.
Line 3
Troops hidden in the thicket, climbing the high hill. Three years without rising. The attempt at connection through force or stealth fails completely. Years of waiting with no result.
Line 4
Climbing the wall, but cannot attack. Good fortune. Approaching conflict, but recognizing you can't win—and stopping. Wisdom in not attacking.
Line 5
First weeping and lamenting, then laughing. The great army manages to meet after all. Fellowship tested by difficulty, nearly lost, finally achieved. The joy of reunion after near-separation.
Line 6
Fellowship in the countryside. No regret. The bond forms outside the city, in the open—not as deep as it might be, but without the entanglements of closer alliance. No regret in this limited connection.
Yilin: Forest of Changes
From Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — the verse for Hexagram 13 in its unchanging form. A Han dynasty collection of four-character verses interpreting every hexagram transformation.
密橐山巔，銷鋒鑄刃；示不復用，天下大勸。
Weapons sealed on the mountaintop; blades melted, edges reforged. Shown never to be used again; all under heaven is greatly inspired.
Read full commentary ↓
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, and here Fellowship returns to itself — source and target are the same hexagram. Weapons are sealed in leather bags and hidden on mountaintops; blades are melted down and recast as tools. This gesture declares to the world: arms shall not be used again, and all under heaven are greatly encouraged. The image echoes the ancient ideal of ceasing warfare to cultivate civil virtue. When Fellowship meets Fellowship, the redundancy becomes reinforcement: shared purpose so complete that even the instruments of conflict are permanently retired. Fire rises to heaven and heaven blazes with fire — pure communal illumination, with nothing left to fight over.
中文注释
天與火同人，同人歸於自身——源卦與變卦皆為同人。密橐山巔，將兵器封於皮囊藏於山頂；銷鋒鑄刃，熔兵刃為農具。示不復用，天下大勸。此即「偃武修文」之古典理想。同人遇同人，重複化為強化：共識完備至連衝突之器具亦永久封存。天與火交映，火升於天——純粹的群體光明，再無可爭之物。
Related Hexagrams
Same upper trigram: Heaven (乾)