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Hexagram 13 of 64

I Ching hexagram 13 ☰☲ Fellowship

I Ching hexagram 13, Fellowship, is heaven above, fire below. In brief: shared purpose in open company. Its one broken line stands in place 2, counting from the bottom; the other five are solid.

Lines, bottom up
⚊⚋⚊⚊⚊⚊ 101111 · 1 = solid
Trigrams
Heaven over Fire Qian ☰ / Li ☲
Every line changed
№ 7 The Army
In Legge, 1882
p. 86 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16

Legge, The Yî King, 1882.

Paired with it line by line — changed, turned over or read from the inner lines: 7, The Army, 14, Great Possession and 44, Coming to Meet.

Also with Heaven above: 1, The Creative, 6, Conflict and 10, Treading.

Also with Fire below: 22, Grace, 30, The Clinging and 36, Darkening of the Light.

To draw a hexagram of your own, cast the I Ching with three coins.

I Ching Hexagram 13: Fellowship

Upper trigram

☰

Heaven (Qian) above

Creative force.

FamilyFather
ElementMetal

Lower trigram

☲

Fire (Li) below

Clarity and attachment.

FamilyMiddle daughter
ElementFire

What the text says, in plain terms

The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 13

The Judgement

Fellowship in the open. Working together succeeds when it is based on shared, public aims rather than private cliques, and it makes even large undertakings possible.

The Image

Heaven above fire: light rising to meet the sky. The lesson is to organize people clearly, recognizing both what they share and how they differ.

A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →

Primary source

Hexagram 13 in James Legge’s translation

The Judgement
“Thung Zăn (or ‘Union of men’) appears here (as we find it) in the (remote districts of the) country, indicating progress and success. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to maintain the firm correctness of the superior man.”
The Image
“(The trigrams for) heaven and fire form Thung Zăn. The superior man, in accordance with this), distinguishes things according to their kinds and classes.”

The lines

  1. Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, (shows the representative of) the union of men just issuing from his gate. There will be no error.
  2. Line 2 The second line, divided, (shows the representative of) the union of men in relation with his kindred. There will be occasion for regret.
  3. Line 3 The third line, undivided, (shows its subject) with his arms hidden in the thick grass, and at the top of a high mound. (But) for three years he makes no demonstration.
  4. Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, (shows its subject) mounted on the city wall; but he does not proceed to make the attack (he contemplates). There will be good fortune.
  5. Line 5 In the fifth line, undivided, (the representative of) the union of men first wails and cries out, and then laughs. His great host conquers, and he (and the subject of the second line) meet together.
  6. Line 6 · top The topmost line, undivided, (shows the representative of) the union of men in the suburbs. There will be no occasion for repentance.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 86 — read the original text. Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.

Fellowship for a decision

Seek allies and act together, openly. Avoid deals that benefit a narrow circle; broad, transparent cooperation is what this hexagram favors.

I Ching 13 in love and relationships

Friendship and shared purpose. Openness about intentions strengthens the bond.

Hexagram 13 at work

Collaboration, communities and alliances across groups. Clear common goals let different people pull in the same direction.

The six lines of hexagram 13

Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yin yang yang yang yang — what each position means.

Hexagram 13: Heaven over Fire
Hexagram 13, Fellowship, line by line from the bottomlineplace · answer1Line 1 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 42Line 2 · yin, brokenin its placeanswered by 53Line 3 · yang, solidin its placeno answer from 64Line 4 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 15Line 5 · yang, solidin its placeanswered by 26Line 6 · yang, solidout of placeno answer from 3LowerLiFireUpperQianHeavenKing Wen sequence · read bottom to topastrohot.com

Five lines are yang and one is yin. Four of the six stand in their proper place, and the pair 2–5 answers.

What the two trigrams do to each other

Inner and outer

Fire below — clarity and attachment — is the private, inner side of hexagram 13.

Heaven above — creative force — is the world that side meets.

The five-element relation

Fire below controls Metal above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.

Read as a family

The father sits above and the middle daughter below. A parent over a child, which the tradition reads as guidance, authority or constraint depending on the rest of the figure.

Calculated from the lines

Hexagrams connected to hexagram 13

Hexagram 44, Coming to Meet

Nuclear hexagram

44 · Coming to Meet

What is happening beneath the surface.

Lines 2–4 give Xun (Wind) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Qian (Heaven) as the upper.

Hexagram 7, The Army

Opposite hexagram

7 · The Army

The situation turned inside out.

Change all six lines and Heaven over Fire becomes Earth over Water.

Hexagram 14, Great Possession

Inverse hexagram

14 · Great Possession

The situation seen from the other side.

Turn the figure upside down and Heaven over Fire becomes Fire over Heaven.

None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.

The image

Heaven above, Fire below.

Heaven over Fire: creative force meeting clarity and attachment.

← 12 · All 64 · 14 →

9 Small Taming 10 Treading 11 Peace 12 Standstill 14 Great Possession 15 Modesty 16 Enthusiasm

Sources

  1. James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 86

Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.

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