13. Tóng Rén 同人
FELLOWSHIP, ASSEMBLY IN THE FIELD, THE COMMON IN MAN, LIKE-MINDED, KINSHIP
FELLOWSHIP, ASSEMBLY IN THE FIELD, THE COMMON IN MAN, LIKE-MINDED, KINSHIP
Openly discuss your doubts, find like-minded people and those with whom you do not share a path. Build on common values and shared goals.
Openly discuss your doubts, find like-minded people and those with whom you do not share a path. Build on common values and shared goals.
Hexagram Structure
The sign is made of two movements aimed the same way: within, Li, fire and clarity; without, Qian, heavenly force. It is fire's nature to reach upward, and heaven is the up — so here the inner striving does not diverge from the outer course of things, a rare case of vectors fully coinciding.
In the general sequence this hexagram stands right after Decline: the solitary path has exhausted itself, and development continues only through going out to people, into common practice. The aphorism ties the fortune of a great undertaking — the crossing of a great river — precisely to unanimity: such a ford is not taken alone; together, dangers pass that are beyond a single person.
The participant is required to meet a double condition: the steadfastness of a noble person and the absence of private calculation. There is a third, less obvious one — a sense of rhythm. A common cause is neither forced nor abandoned halfway: it is led in time with those around, and haste breaks the stride as surely as hesitation does.
How It Works in Practice
The period's background is mild stress. Hence the uncertainty and unease you have most likely already noticed in yourself: decisions come harder than usual, trifles snag more than they deserve. Treat this state like weather — it will pass on its own. The cause is certainly not your affairs: those, in fact, will soon take a turn for the better, and the wait is short.
The surroundings are unusually friendly. Wherever you go, the company will be good — the period simply does not leave you alone, and new acquaintances now are more reliable than chance ones. This is worth using in a big way: high aims can be taken up and fought for openly; the sign supports such a fight. Hiding intentions or acting by roundabout ways makes no sense — the straight game wins.
A line of its own: unexpected help. You will be supported by a person you were not counting on, so do not wave away offers that come from the quarter where you expected nothing. Sometimes it is precisely such allies who decide the outcome.
The key to the wish's fulfillment lies with your elders — with those more experienced, older in age or in standing. Their advice, their patronage, or simply their involvement is offered now not out of politeness. As seriously as you take this help, so fully will the intended come to pass. The wish itself will be fulfilled; the only question is whether you accept the hand already held out to you.
Traditional Description
Above is the trigram Qian (Heaven), below is the trigram Li (Fire). The metaphorical image of this hexagram is tongues of flame rising to the heavens, like the spirits of people, as if seeing their reflection in the sun and stars. Just as one spark is easier to extinguish than a bonfire, so the human spirit soars higher faster if it is united with other people.
A real community is much more than just a mass of people, so Tong Ren emphasizes the importance of those who can lead and are able to set a goal that unites people. Unions depend on the commonality of interests, goals, and actions. We need to remember that we are all born from one source and the sun illuminates us all equally.
The main enemies of any human community are the struggle for power, suspicion, secrecy, and concealment, hence Tong Ren is called ‘Assembly in the field (on the wasteland)’, in a place that is open both physically and spiritually. Secret doubts and unconstructive attitudes need to be brought out into open discussion, where they can be corrected and rectified. Creating such communities will not eliminate difficulties, but with the preservation of group unity, difficulties can be met boldly, with hope for ultimate success.
Moreover, the image of assembling a group of people in the wasteland indicates the search for the principle of true community, for in the wasteland there is nothing to strive for or achieve. The true motives and desires of people will easily manifest, and it will become clear who is a supporter and who is an opponent of such a union, who can be trusted and relied upon, and who is better to allow to move on independently. The city is aside, and one should emerge into it after the group has gained true unity. Remember that the right unification of people means revealing the strengths of each, not striving for uniformity of thoughts and actions, not breaking everyone to fit oneself. True union is built on common values and achieving shared goals.nnnnn
I Ching Talking
For like-minded people - first cries and screams, then laughter. Great troops are defeated, and there will be a meeting.
Hexagram Line Descriptions
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The process is complete, and its center empties: unanimity shifts to the outskirts, to where nothing is decided anymore. The goal reached at the previous step stops drawing attention — there is nothing left to gravitate toward. The dispassion won in struggle cools into indifference. There is nothing here to repent of: the stage ended honestly, no new attachments arose, and the person simply stands at the edge of a situation that has let him go.
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The most strained step. The path to union runs through despair — cries and wails give way to laughter only after the battle. The great armies routed are no outer foe: they are one's own thoughts, habits, and limits, a whole army a person marshals against unity himself. To overcome it is harder than any weapon from outside. But after such a victory the meeting with the like-minded happens for real: it is no longer positions that converge, but people.
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The position is taken — the person stands on the city rampart, and the temptation to finish the matter with an assault is great. It is precisely from this that the step holds him back: an unripe onslaught would destroy what must ripen on its own. This position's happiness lies in restraint. Renouncing pressure, a person comes to dispassion, and in that state old knowledge and new facts stop warring with each other: at last they can be joined. Patience here proves more effective than any advance.
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The sign's crisis. Old knowledge collides with a new goal, and accumulated reason turns from a tool into a weapon hidden in the thicket: the arguments a person is used to winning with now work against his own movement. The urge to rise at once to the highest union runs into inner discord, and the ascent of the hill is put off for a long time — the reckoning is in years, not weeks. The delay here is not a punishment from outside but a direct consequence of the disharmony within the one who walks.
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Unanimity here shrinks to the familiar circle — the picture of an ancestral temple, where only one's own gather. A person holds to the old image of the world and the old ties, and this attachment halts the movement. The new understanding is right in itself, but he does not dare rely on it: the experience of the past is weak before the task, and he lacks the nerve to step beyond familiar company. The step's outcome is regret. The circle that once protected now keeps him from growing.
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Union begins with a simple move: to leave one's own house and stand in the gateway, on the border between the private and the common. While a person is taking this step, there is simply nothing to err in — no obligations, no shared undertakings yet, and therefore no ground for reproach. The step's one requirement is not to drag one's private separateness along. Whoever goes out to others while still measuring everything by his own yard has never left the gate, however far he strides.
The six steps read as one route: leaving the house, getting stuck among kin, the ambush of one's own mind, restraint on the rampart, victory over oneself, and the quiet edge of the field. The real obstacles to union turn out every time to be inside the one who walks, not between people — and so each position describes not negotiation but inner work. The reward is proportionate to the road: joint action carried to the end places what was done into the participants' own hands — the next sign of the Book calls this situation possession of the great.