家人

Hexagram 37: The Family → Hexagram 15: Modesty

家人
The Family
Wind / Fire
Modesty
Earth / Mountain
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 5, 6).

Line 1

初九 閑有家。悔亡。

xiándiscipline
yǒuhold
jiā(a
huǐregret(s)
wángpass

Nine at the beginning means: Firm seclusion within the family. Remorse disappears.

Line 5

九五 王假有家。勿恤吉。

wáng(as
jiǎcomes
yǒuhis
jiāfamily
do not
be anxious
(the) promise

Nine in the fifth place means: As a king he approaches his family. Fear not. Good fortune.

Line 6

上九 有孚威如。終吉。

yǒubeing
true
wēidignified
(is) like
zhōng(the) outcome
(is) (just as) promising

Nine at the top means: His work commands respect. In the end good fortune comes.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWind EarthThe Gentle → The Receptive
Lower TrigramFire MountainThe Clinging → Keeping Still

Yilin Verse

尹氏伯奇,父子生離。无罪被辜,長舌為災。

Yin the minister and Boqi his son, father and child torn apart in life. Without guilt he bears the blame; a long tongue brings the disaster.

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

Commentary

Wind from fire defines the family's bonds, but here those bonds are severed by slander. Minister Yin Jifu and his son Boqi are torn apart by a stepmother's venomous tongue. According to tradition, Boqi's stepmother placed a bee on her collar; when the filial son reached to brush it away, his father mistook the gesture for assault and banished him. Innocent, convicted by false accusation, Boqi wandered the wilderness composing the lament 'Treading on Frost.' The 'long tongue' that brings disaster echoes the Shijing's warning against slanderous women. From The Family to Modesty, the mountain hidden within the earth suggests virtue concealed and unrecognized. Boqi's genuine filial piety lies buried beneath false accusation, unseen precisely because modesty cannot defend itself against malice.

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