同人

Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 60: Limitation

同人
Fellowship
Heaven / Fire
Limitation
Water / Lake
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 6).

Line 2

六二 同人于宗。吝。

tóngfellowship with
rénothers
only in
zōngclan
lìnembarrassment

Six in the second place means: Fellowship with men in the clan. Humiliation.

Line 3

九三 伏戎于莽。升其高陵。三歲不興。

cache
róngweapons
in
mǎngunderbrush
shēngclimbing up
one's
gāohighest
línghills
sānthree
suìyears
of
xīngexuberance

Nine in the third place means: He hides weapons in the thicket; He climbs the high hill in front of it. For three years he does not rise up.

Line 4

九四 乘其墉。弗克攻。吉。

chéngmounting
one's
yōngbattlement
but not
capable of
gōngto attack
promising

Nine in the fourth place means: He climbs up on his wall; he cannot attack. Good fortune.

Line 6

上九 同人于郊。无悔。

tóngfellowship with
rénothers
in
jiāoouter districts
no
huǐto regret

Nine at the top means: Fellowship with men in the meadow. No remorse.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramHeaven WaterThe Creative → The Deep
Lower TrigramFire LakeThe Clinging → The Joyous

Yilin Verse

螟䖝為賊,害我稼穡;盡禾單麥,秋無所得。

Caterpillars and grubs become thieves, harming our crops and harvest. They strip the grain and bare the wheat; in autumn there is nothing to reap.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but pests devour what the community has labored to grow. Caterpillars and grubs raid the crops, destroying grain and wheat alike; by autumn, nothing remains to harvest. The verse is agricultural catastrophe stripped to its essentials — insects as invaders, the field as a failed state. From Fellowship to Limitation, the transformation prescribes the remedy. Water above the lake in Limitation; the noble man establishes measures and evaluates conduct. The plague of insects is a failure of boundaries — nature's forces entering unchecked. Limitation's numbered measures and regulated conduct are precisely what the ruined harvest lacked: the discipline to contain what devours before it devours everything.

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