Hexagram 37: Jia Ren （家人） — The Family

The Judgment （卦辞）

The Family. It is favorable for the woman to be steadfast.

ExplainedThe sage makes the woman the head of the house, for a home is bound not by bricks but by love, and that cementing love is a mother's unconditional care. Saving the world must begin in the family, where the yielding way can unfold. Where love gives out, quarrels and divorce follow; severity belongs to the other half of the work, and each must keep to its task.

Tuan Zhuan — Commentary on the Judgment （彖传）

In The Family the woman's place is set within and the man's place without; man and woman set right is the great order of heaven and earth. The family has a stern ruler: it is the parents. Father father-like, son son-like, elder brother elder-brother-like, younger brother younger-brother-like, husband husband-like, wife wife-like: then the way of the family stands right. The family set right, the world is settled.

ExplainedThe second line is the woman's place and the fifth the man's, so the woman keeps the inner realm and the man the outer, each in place as heaven and earth are in place and not to be inverted. Parents are the household's stern rulers. When kindness, filial duty, fraternal care and mutual support each hold their station, the family stands right, and a world of right families stands settled, not by policy or diplomacy but by household order.

Xiang Zhuan — Image Commentary （大象）

Wind comes forth from fire: The Family. Thus the noble one's words have substance and his conduct has constancy.

ExplainedFire warming the home gives rise to wind, and one goes out into the world with vigor. Toward the family the noble one speaks of virtue and duty rather than of gossip, and acts with perseverance: teaching by word and by example, for parents instruct from the moment they open their mouths.

The Six Lines （六爻）

The lines are read from the bottom upward. Each carries its own text, a Small Image commentary, and a plain-English reading.