家人 → 觀
Hexagram 37: The Family → Hexagram 20: Contemplation
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初九 閑有家。悔亡。
Nine at the beginning means: Firm seclusion within the family. Remorse disappears.
Line 3
九三 家人嗃嗃。悔厲吉。婦子嘻嘻。終吝。
Nine in the third place means: When tempers flare up in the family, Too great severity brings remorse. Good fortune nonetheless. When woman and child dally and laugh It leads in the end to humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
恭寬信敏，功加四海。辟去不祥，喜來從母。
Cultivated bamboo stands straight, never bending. Where a pure breeze passes, waves rise naturally. Virtuous conduct spreads beyond a thousand mountains — a hundred birds return to the forest, circling the trees.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind from fire carries the family's influence far beyond the household walls. The original verse reads: 'Reverent, generous, sincere, and diligent — merit extends across the four seas; misfortune is turned away, and joy comes following the mother.' These four virtues — reverence, generosity, sincerity, diligence — echo the Analerta's prescription for effective governance. When practiced within the family, they radiate outward to bless the wider world. The 'mother' here may signal the maternal principle of nurturing order. From The Family to Contemplation, wind moves across the earth as the sage surveys his realm. The transformation is one of scope: domestic virtue, consistently practiced, becomes a model that the whole world can observe and emulate. The family becomes a teaching in itself.
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