同人小畜

Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 9: Small Taming

同人
Fellowship
Heaven / Fire
小畜
Small Taming
Wind / Heaven
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

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

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 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.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramHeaven WindThe Creative → The Gentle
Lower TrigramFire HeavenThe Clinging → The Creative

Yilin Verse

載石上山,步跌不前;嚬眉之憂,不得所歡。

Hauling stones up the mountain; one stumbles and cannot advance. With furrowed brow and worry; one finds no joy.

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

Commentary

Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but the burden crushes the will. Carrying stones uphill, the traveler stumbles and cannot advance — brow furrowed deep in worry, joy nowhere to be found. The image is pure Sisyphean labor: a task that defies the body's limits, gravity always winning, each step harder than the last. From Fellowship to Small Taming, the transformation reveals the frustration of gentle restraint applied to overwhelming force. Wind moves across heaven in Small Taming, refining civil virtue through patience. But the verse shows the underside of that patience — when the load exceeds what softness can manage, even fellowship cannot lighten the stone.

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