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Hexagram 53 — Jia Ren, The Family
Chronological no. 53 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 37 · 家人
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the eldest daughter
the middle daughter
Wind is born of Fire: the image of the family. Inner warmth engenders a movement that spreads outward — what begins at the hearth always ends up radiating elsewhere. This is the figure of domestic influence shaping the wider world. Thus the noble one grounds his words in substance, and his conduct in constancy: what is lived within the intimacy of the home becomes, sooner or later, what one carries everywhere else.
The ordered rigor of the family cell. No wider structure holds together unless its most intimate cell — the home — is itself ordered and just. This line says that the order of the world always begins with the order of the household.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The receptive earth reaches its fullness: the silent welcome that carried the lower figure is about to assert itself.
At the threshold between earth and man, force wavers: what acted through firmness hesitates before turning.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 10 — Jie, Deliverance (63 − 53 = 10): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 10, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
52 — Jian, Development · 54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☴ Xun): 48 — Guan, Contemplation · 49 — Yi, Increase · 50 — Huan, Dispersion · 51 — Zhong Fu, Inner Truth · 52 — Jian, Development · 54 — Xun, The Gentle, Wind · 55 — Xiao Chu, The Taming Power of the Small
Same lower trigram (☲ Li): 5 — Ming Yi, Darkening of the Light · 13 — Feng, Abundance · 21 — Ji Ji, After Completion · 29 — Ge, Revolution · 37 — Bi, Grace · 45 — Li, That Which Clings, Fire · 61 — Tong Ren, Fellowship with Men
