家人

Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 37: The Family

Gathering Together
Lake / Earth
家人
The Family
Wind / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 6).

Line 1

初六 有孚不終。乃亂乃萃。若號一握為笑。勿恤。往无咎。

yǒubeing
true
is not
zhōngall
nǎiif first
luànconfused
nǎiand then
cuìgather
ruòseeming
hàoto call
and one
helping handclasp
wéibecomes
xiàolaughter
do not
worry
wǎnggo
without
jiùguilt

Six at the beginning means: If you are sincere, but not to the end, There will sometimes be confusion, sometimes gathering together. If you call out, Then after one grasp of the hand you can laugh again. Regret not. Going is without blame.

Line 3

六三 萃如嗟如。无攸利。往无咎。小吝。

cuìto congregate
it seems that
jiēa lamentation
is like
this is no
yōudirection
with merit
wǎngto go
is not
jiùblameworthy
xiǎobut a little
lìnembarrassment

Six in the third place means: Gathering together amid sighs. Nothing that would further. Going is without blame. Slight humiliation.

Line 4

九四 大吉无咎。

much
promise
no
jiùblame

Nine in the fourth place means: Great good fortune. No blame.

Line 6

上六 齎咨涕洟。无咎。

offer up
counsel
but
and sniveling
but
jiùblame

Six at the top means: Lamenting and sighing, floods of tears. No blame.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramLake WindThe Joyous → The Gentle
Lower TrigramEarth FireThe Receptive → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

衣穴履穿,无以禦寒。細小貧窶,不能自存。

Clothes in tatters, shoes worn through; nothing to ward off the cold. Diminished and destitute; unable to sustain oneself.

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

Commentary

Lake upon earth gives way to wind emerging from fire, the inner warmth of the Family. Yet the verse depicts its complete negation: clothes have holes, shoes are worn through, and there is no protection against the cold. Small, impoverished, and destitute, one cannot sustain oneself. Every element of domestic provision is absent: no shelter from weather, no material sufficiency, no self-reliance. From Gathering to the Family, the irony is devastating. Wind from fire should mean the household's inner warmth radiating outward as gentle influence, yet this household has nothing to radiate. The family that should be the fundamental unit of gathered strength is instead the locus of absolute deprivation, its fire extinguished, its wind carrying nothing but cold.

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