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Daoa
The 64 figures

Yi Jing · Chinese tarot

Fellowship

Hexagram 13 of the Yi Jing · 同人 Tóng Rén

The figure

Heaven above Fire: clarity rising toward the open, light shared. The image of fellowship, of what gathers in plain sight.

What this figure illuminates

Fellowship lights up union founded on common, clear ends, not on closed circles. What gathers people lastingly is what can be said openly.

For a decision, the figure questions the quality of the bond: “does what unites us hold in the light, or only an interest that couldn't bear to be named?”.

The classical text

The Judgment

Fellowship in the open, under the broad sky — this brings success. It furthers you to cross the great stream, held to the uprightness of a true person.

The Image

Fire rises toward heaven, its light shared with all. Seeing this, the noble person tells things apart by their kind, and so unites them truly.

The Six Lines

  1. First line

    Fellowship as you step out your own gate, open to all alike. No error.

  2. Second line

    Fellowship kept only within your own clan. Narrowed to your own, it brings regret.

  3. Third line

    Weapons hidden in the thicket, watching from the height — for three years you dare not move. Suspicion holds you frozen.

  4. Fourth line

    Mounted on the rampart, you do not press the attack. To hold back is good fortune.

  5. Fifth line

    First you weep, then you laugh: what kept you apart is overcome, and you meet at last.

  6. Sixth line

    Fellowship out in the suburbs, wide but distant — no deep bond, yet nothing to regret.

Daoa's wording, written after the classical reference translations, now in the public domain: James Legge (1882) and Charles de Harlez (1889).

A question to keep

Would what unites you with others hold up in plain sight?

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