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䷤
Hexagram 37 of 64
The Family
家人 · Jiā Rén
Wind coming out of fire, influence spreading from a warm centre. The classic's hexagram of the household, and its argument that public order begins in private conduct.
family
roles
household
consistency
- King Wen number
- 37 of 64
- Above
- ☴ Xùn · Wind
- Below
- ☲ Lí · Fire
- Composition
- Wind over Fire
- Lines, bottom to top
- Solid · broken · solid · broken · solid · solid
- Chinese
- 家人 · Jiā Rén
The Judgment
It rewards the steadfastness of the woman.
In its own period this named the household's inner authority as the load-bearing one. Read now, the line marks where the hexagram places responsibility rather than prescribing who holds it.
The Image
Wind comes out of fire: The Family. So the noble person's words have substance and their conduct has consistency.
The whole ethic in one sentence. In a household, the gap between what is said and what is done is visible daily.
What it means
Jia Ren is the household, and the classic uses it to make an argument it repeats nowhere else so directly: the small unit is where public character is actually formed. Wind comes out of fire, influence spreading outward from a warm centre.
The Image is the durable part. Words with substance, conduct with consistency. In a household, nothing else is possible, because everyone sees the gap between the two every day. The hexagram's claim is that a person who cannot manage this at home will not manage it anywhere.
The third line is the classic being fair to both failures. When tempers flare and someone is too severe, there is regret, and good fortune all the same. When the household is nothing but laughing and dallying, it ends in humiliation. Given the choice, the book prefers the uncomfortable house to the indulgent one, and does not pretend either is right.
The Judgment and the second line divide roles the way the Bronze Age divided them, with the woman's steadiness holding the interior. That division is historical rather than prescriptive; what carries across is the hexagram's insistence that the inner work of a household is where its authority comes from.
In a reading
The Family as an answer points to a small, close group: a household, a team, anyone you deal with daily.
Its counsel is structural. Set the boundaries early, keep your word and your conduct in the same place, and accept that clarity is kinder than indulgence. The fifth line adds the tone: authority in this setting works when it is affectionate and not when it is anxious.
The six lines
Read a line's text only when the cast made it a moving line. They are listed from the top of the figure down, the way the hexagram is drawn.
-
Nine at the top
His work commands respect. In the end, good fortune.
Standing earned by conduct over time. Nothing is claimed, and the respect arrives anyway.
-
Nine in the fifth place
As a king, he approaches his family. No anxiety. Good fortune.
Authority exercised with love rather than through it. The ruling line.
-
Six in the fourth place
She is the wealth of the house. Great good fortune.
The person who makes the household prosper, named as its actual asset.
-
Nine in the third place
When tempers flare in the family, severity brings regret and still good fortune. When the household only laughs and dallies, it ends in humiliation.
The classic's honest verdict: too strict is a fault with a good outcome, too lax is a comfort with a bad one.
-
Six in the second place
She does not follow her own whims; she attends to what nourishes the household. Steadfastness brings good fortune.
The centre of the house, doing the work that keeps it running. An ancient division of labour, stated as the period understood it.
-
Nine at the beginning
Firm boundaries within the family from the start. Regret disappears.
Structure established early, before anything has gone wrong. The classic prefers this to any later correction.
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