家人

Hexagram 52: Keeping Still Mountain → Hexagram 37: The Family

Keeping Still Mountain
Mountain / Mountain
家人
The Family
Wind / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 5).

Line 1

初六 艮其趾。无咎。利永貞。

gènstillness
in one's own
zhǐtoes
no
jiùblame
worth
yǒnglasting
zhēnpersistence

Six at the beginning means: Keeping his toes still. No blame. Continued perseverance furthers.

Line 5

六五 艮其輔。言有序。悔亡。

gènstillness
in one's own
jawbones
yánspeech
yǒuhas
meaningful order
huǐregrets
wángpass

Six in the fifth place means: Keeping his jaws still. The words have order. Remorse disappears.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramMountain WindKeeping Still → The Gentle
Lower TrigramMountain FireKeeping Still → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

山作天時,陸為海口,民不安處。

Mountains become the sky's weather; land becomes the sea's mouth. The people cannot dwell in peace.

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

Commentary

Twin mountains stand still, but the natural order inverts catastrophically. Mountains usurp the weather of heaven; dry land becomes the mouth of the sea. The people can find no safe place to dwell. The verse describes cosmic upheaval: geography itself is rearranged, categories collapse, and habitability vanishes. From Keeping Still to the Family, mountain yields to wind emerging from fire — the warmth of the household radiating outward as gentle instruction. Yet the verse depicts the annihilation of domestic stability: when mountains become storms and fields become ocean floors, no family structure can survive. The transformation suggests that Family order depends on cosmic order; when the latter dissolves, the former has no ground to stand on.

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