In love
Shared values count: build together around common projects without isolating yourselves from the rest of the world.
Hexagram 13
I Ching hexagram 13: Fellowship with Men (Tong ren)
Tong Ren, Fellowship with Men, is the hexagram of open gathering: coming together in the open, beyond your close circle.
- community
- openness
- alliance
The essentials
Tong ren at a glance
For you, Tong Ren invites you to join or form an open group: unite around a common goal, without retreating into your own.
A strength
The art of bringing people together without excluding: a shared cause, clearly laid out, in which everyone can find themselves.
Something to watch
Settling for the circle of those close to you: a fellowship closed in on itself shrinks what it wanted to grow.
- What it advises
- Gather around a clear and open goal, acknowledge differences, and avoid closing in on a small circle.
- Its opposite
- 7. The Army (Shi)
The situation
Tong Ren speaks of the community of men and women who find one another. It specifies that people gather in the open country, so in the open and not in secret. From this transparency come success and the ability to cross great difficulties.
The hexagram pairs the clarity of fire with the strength of heaven: a visible goal, an upright virtue, and a common impulse. The point is not to come together out of private interest, but through an ideal that goes beyond each person.
Its lines show the stages of such an alliance, from leaving home to reunion, with the risks of closed clans and mistrust.
The image: Heaven above Fire
- AboveHeaven: the force that creates
- BelowFire: clarity that clings
Heaven above Fire: the flame rises toward heaven and joins it. The commentaries see in it the art of distinguishing families and beings in order to unite them better.
Consult the I Ching
Throw three coins six times: your hexagram, the lines that change, and the direction they point to.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
The six lines
- 1st line (bottom) · solidGoing out your door to join others: there is no blame. Reaching toward others is already opening up.
- 2nd line · brokenGathering only with people of your clan: the text speaks of regret. The understanding stays too narrow.
- 3rd line · solidHiding weapons in the grass and watching from the hill: for three years, no one acts. Mistrust paralyzes.
- 4th line · solidClimbing the rampart without attacking: the text reads a good omen in it. Holding back your hand ends the confrontation.
- 5th line · solidFirst people weep and cry out, then they laugh: the strength of those united prevails, and the reunion takes place.
- 6th line (top) · solidGathering in the suburbs, unable to convince the others: no regret, but the alliance stays limited.
Tong ren in your life
At work
Associations, groups, and common causes are favored, provided the objective is visible, shared, and explained to everyone concerned.
The I Ching helps you reflect on how to act: it does not say what is coming.
How is it built?
- Character
- 同人 (tóng rén)
- Number
- 13 in the King Wen sequence
- Trigrams
- Heaven (乾) above, Fire (離) below
- Inner hexagram
- 44. Coming to Meet (Gou) (lines 2 to 4 and 3 to 5)
- Read upside down
- 14. Possession in Great Measure (Da you)
- Symbol
- ䷌ (U+4DCC)
The English names are the usual renderings of the Chinese characters; the texts rely on the Chinese and on early public-domain translations (Legge, 1882; Philastre, 1885–1893).
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “List of hexagrams of the I Ching,” read on October 15, 2026: numbers, characters, pinyin, lower and upper trigrams.
- Wikipedia (English), “Bagua,” read on October 15, 2026: lines of the eight trigrams, from bottom to top.
- James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, 1882 (Wikisource): public domain.
- Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Annales du Musée Guimet, 1885–1893: public domain (the author died more than 70 years ago).
Frequently asked questions about hexagram 13
What does hexagram 13 of the I Ching mean?
Hexagram 13, Tong Ren, means fellowship: an open gathering around a common goal, beyond the closed circles of family or clan.
What is Tong Ren opposed to?
It is hexagram 7, Shi, the Army. One organizes a troop under a leader, the other gathers equals around a cause. Hexagram 14 is its inverse.