家人

Hexagram 53: Development → Hexagram 37: The Family

Development
Wind / Mountain
家人
The Family
Wind / Fire
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).

Line 1

初六 鴻漸于干。小子厲有言。無咎。

hóngthe wild geese
jiàngradually advance
to
gānthe shoreline
xiǎothe little
child
having
yǒuthere is
yána talk
but no
jiùblame

Six at the beginning means: The wild goose gradually draws near the shore. The young son is in danger. There is talk. No blame.

Trigram Changes

Upper TrigramWind Wind
Lower TrigramMountain FireKeeping Still → The Clinging

Yilin Verse

大根不固,華葉落去,更為孤嫗。

The great root is not secure; blossoms and leaves fall away, leaving only a lonely old woman.

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

Commentary

Wind over mountain yields to wind emerging from fire: gradual development meets the order of the Family. The great root is not firm; flowers and leaves fall away, leaving behind only a lonely old woman. A tree whose root fails loses everything above ground: blossoms, foliage, shade. What remains is solitude and age. From Development to the Family, wind issues from fire, words must have substance, and actions must have constancy. Yet the verse presents a family in dissolution: the matriarch is left alone because the foundation was never secured. Gradual growth that neglects its root system produces a hollow trunk. The Family hexagram's insistence on constancy resonates as a warning: without firm grounding, the family tree sheds its members one by one.

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