13 story

The image of hexagram 13
Tóng Rén, Family of man

Hexagram 13 has trigram Li, Fire, below or inside, Qián, Heaven, above or outside. Fire makes order, divides the dissimilar and combines the similar. Heaven makes sure it answers to the rules.

What does it mean, 'inner' and 'outer trigram' (popup)

When trigram Li is below (popup)

When trigram Qián is above (popup)

Fire below Heaven: things become visible, it is clear now what kind they are, because Heaven's laws also show. The law that a human looks different than a dog. Similar creatures tend to cling together, because they recognize each other, or a certain soil favors certain plants. But Fire also shows their differemnces, and Heaven makes sure they live the life they are supposed to live. Not underwater when they have lungs, or in the desert with gills.

The old diviners gave this combination of trigrams a name: Tóng Rén. Fire below creates order and Heaven above makes certain it is carried out. Fire is dry, it does not hand out favors or blessings, it shows things as they are. People find safety and 'belonging' in a group which is familiar, and where an unfamiliar face is easily recognizable. Tong Ren shows both recognition and rejection, 'us' and 'them', cliques and acceptance.

Ideogram of the hexagram name: the first character, tong (at the top), is a mould for casting adobe bricks, and the resulting brick: equality, unify, to participate in something together, gather, harmony, stability, to agree, collusion, together, preposition, conjunction. The audition of all feudal lords with the emperor was also called Tong. The second character is ren, person.
Tong is 'same', ren is 'people': Similar people.

The 'Great Image' says: Heaven associating with fire: union of people. The noble one classifies the clans and reads the trails of creatures.

Hex.13 is the contrast of 7, which is about a mass of people who are all similar, but are led by the one who is different. In 13 similarity and difference is relative. You are human, like your neighbor, but different being male and female. A mammal like your dog, but different from furry fourfooters.
One meaning of Tong is 'confusion' - because too much similarity, too little contrast, can cause a lack of overview.

An artist's view on being similar (popup)

  We humans can understand each other because we are of the same kind. Same goes for every category of creatures.
  And in turn we can classify the world around us because things don’t come in single units, they come in kinds and classes and similarities. Thanks to that we can find order in what otherwise would seem chaos.
   We love or fight, help or hate, what looks like us. It is the base of social feelings and compassion but just as well of cliques and sects. We can recognize who feels similar, and who is clearly different.
  Among your own kind, you are what you are not.

The image of hexagram 13 Tóng Rén, Family of man

The image of hexagram 13
Tóng Rén, Family of man