I Ching Tong Ren Meaning: Hexagram 13

Draw Tong Ren 同人 and students often automatically translate: there is a patron, there are partners, this time we can do it together.

That is only half right. Tong Ren does speak of cooperation. It first asks you one thing: with whom are you the same? Same with people of a public heart: that is 于野, in the wild, and it opens. Same only with clan, a small circle: that is 于宗, in the clan, and there is cause for regret. Narrow the range of sameness and the hexagram’s qi turns from opening to small-minded.

First get the image right. Tong Ren is Heaven over Fire, Fellowship. Qian 乾 above, Li 離 below. Heaven above, Fire below. Fire’s nature goes up, the same direction as Heaven, so they can be the same. It is not Fire over Heaven, Da You 大有. Da You is Li above, Qian below, fire in heaven, about possessing. Tong Ren is fire under heaven, about people of one heart, work that can be done together. Reverse above and below and the whole piece will be read wrong.

Why Tong Ren follows Pi 否

The Xugua says: 「物不可以終否，故受之以同人。」 Things cannot stay in standstill to the end; therefore Tong Ren follows. Before it is Pi: Heaven and Earth do not meet, above and below do not open. Closed to a point, people cannot forever each live their own; they will find companions again. So after Pi it is not immediately Tai 泰. In the middle you first have to learn Tong Ren: open the door, do work with people outside.

This is practical for a reading. People who draw Tong Ren have often just come out of a closed stretch. The old circle is not enough; the old method is stuck. The hexagram is not telling you to shrink back into your own people for warmth. It is telling you to go out the door.

The judgment: 「同人于野，亨。利涉大川，利君子貞。」 In the wild: the outskirts, the public, not limited by blood or faction. That opens. Beneficial to cross a great stream: this kind of public-hearted cooperation can cross a great river, carry a great matter. Beneficial for the superior person’s correctness: be correct. Do not be the same for the sake of being the same, selling principle to buy headcount.

The Tuan says: 「文明以健，中正而應，君子正也。唯君子為能通天下之志。」 Li below is culture and brightness; Qian above is strength. Bright, strong, also centered and correct: then you can connect other people’s hearts. Tong Ren is not pulling votes. It is being correct, then others are willing to be the same with you.

The Xiang says: 「天與火，同人。君子以類族辨物。」 Heaven with Fire, Tong Ren. The superior person sorts kinds and distinguishes things. Sameness is not stirring into one pot. What should be classified is still classified; what should be distinguished is still distinguished. In class I often add: Tong Ren is not taking all comers. It is a public heart, still recognizing people and matters.

Career and wealth: take it out to talk

Ask about career and draw Tong Ren: overall good for partnership, forming a team, crossing departments, taking a plan outside to talk. Shutting yourself in a room to do it does not fit this hexagram. Fire has to go up to meet Heaven; a person has to walk out the door.

For wealth, Tong Ren is more like “money you only have by doing it together”: a split, a project, joint development, closing through people. Not lottery windfall. Beneficial to cross a great stream: you can take a larger case, provided you have not shrunk the circle into a clan. Only doing it with relatives, only with old colleagues, only listening to your own faction: that is six in the second’s cause for regret. Money is not absent. The pattern is small; later, gaps easily grow.

Interviews, job-seeking, and Tong Ren: the other side cares whether you can work together, not only whether you are strong alone. Qian above, Li below: there is culture and there is force, but force is used to walk together, not to prove “without me it cannot be done.”

If you asked whether to split a partnership, leave a group: Tong Ren usually does not encourage cutting in one breath of anger. It encourages you to check first: are you in the wild, or in the clan. If you were already bound only to your own people, splitting is more like learning in-the-wild. If you were public-hearted and only momentarily angry, leaving the group will walk opening into isolation.

Love and people: one heart is not one faction

Ask about love and draw Tong Ren: the point is whether this relationship can be moved from a private small circle to a place that can see light. Li is fire, brightness; Qian is the public. Good for meeting parents, making the relationship public, the two of you facing outsiders together. Living only in a two-person world calling each other “our own,” yet unable to be seen: more like in the clan, not in the wild.

If you are single and draw Tong Ren, a connection mostly comes from a group: classmates, colleagues, a club, a public occasion. Not the kind of sliding until dawn alone at night. Go out the door. Go out and meet, then there is sameness.

If you are already together, Tong Ren reminds: do you only play with your own friends, shutting the other person’s world outside the door? Clan is your own people, sounds warm; the hexagram marked cause for regret. Small-circle love is sweet, and easily becomes exclusive. After exclusive, when a great matter comes there is no one to help.

Workplace people and Tong Ren: most to avoid is taking sides. Nine in the third writes troops hidden in the grass: on the surface cooperating, soldiers ambushed in the thicket. Draw this qi and a smile in a meeting is not necessarily one heart. Less passing words, less joining who hits whom. Do the work clearly: that is culture with strength.

Lines: different places, different ways of being the same

Tong Ren is not all six lines lucky. Where you are the same, luck and unluck differ a long way. These lines I always teach accurately in class.

Initial nine: 同人于門，無咎. Just at the gate, already of one heart with people. The gate is the first step out the door, not yet gathered into a small circle. Draw the initial nine: cooperation can start; the attitude should be open, early. Do not wait until you are in the house to make factions. No blame is no excess, not already great merit.

Six in the second: 同人于宗，吝. Same only with clan, your own people. Six in the second looks in position, yet gathers “sameness” into clan. Draw this line: partnership only finding relatives, a team only trusting old subordinates: short term it saves trouble, long term cause for regret. Cause for regret is not great unluck. The measure is not enough; the matter cannot be done large.

Nine in the third: 伏戎于莽，升其高陵，三歲不興. Hide troops in the grass, climb a high mound to look, three years cannot launch. This is false sameness. Together on the surface, preparing for war in the heart. Draw nine in the third: at work guard against this kind of person, and guard against becoming this kind of person yourself. The matter will freeze a long time, because no one dares put the weapons down first.

Nine in the fifth: 同人，先號咷而後笑，大師克相遇. First wail, then laugh. A great army overcomes obstacles and finally meets the people it should meet. Nine in the fifth is this hexagram’s ruling line. True sameness often has to pass a hard stretch. Draw this line: early cooperation may be very loud, very aggrieved, even look like it will scatter. Do not use scattering to end it. Walk the correct path through and you will laugh. A great army: you have to put in force, not rely on feeling.

Upper nine: 同人于郊，無悔. Same as far as the suburbs. The suburbs are a little farther than the wild, a bit unable to reach the core, so no great opening, but no regret. Draw the upper nine: cooperation may stop at the periphery — a name on the list, an advisor, remote, no longer in the decision circle. Need not force your way in. No regret is already enough.

In the wild, at the gate, in the clan, in the suburbs: four places are four ways of being the same. In class I have students first ask themselves: this time, where am I Tong Ren? If they can say it, the hexagram was not wasted.

How I use Tong Ren in class

Draw Tong Ren and I usually only give three concrete things.

First, take the cooperation onto the table and write it clearly. In the wild is public; public has to see light. Oral “we are our own people, why a contract” most easily walks to in-the-clan, and most easily walks to hidden troops.

Second, check whether the list is only your own people. Only your own people: actively add one “outside” person, even if first asking advice, first cooperating on one small matter. Wild is not telling you to take the house door down. It is telling your eyes not to look only at kin.

Third, nine in the third’s ambush: do not act it with them. If you can get the words open, get them open; if not, open distance. Do not spend three years in the grass. Three years cannot launch: that is this kind of spending.

After Tong Ren is Da You. People can be the same, then things return. If this time you only want to possess yourself, do not want to be the same with people, the hexagram sequence is walking backwards. Pi shuts people in; Tong Ren lets people out; after they are out you can talk of Da You. The order cannot be reversed.

Compare: I Ching Pi Meaning | Hexagram 12 How to Read: Getting Through Standstill. After closedness you have to go out the door again; then Tong Ren connects. After Tong Ren, if you ask how to hold what you possess: I Ching Da You Meaning | Hexagram 14 How to Read: Great Possession, How to Hold It. Qian 乾 is being strong yourself; Tong Ren is walking together. Do not mix the two: I Ching Qian Meaning | Hexagram 1 How to Read: Hidden Dragon to Arrogant Dragon.

I Ching Tong Ren FAQ

Does Tong Ren mean cooperation will definitely succeed?

The direction is that you can share, not that it will definitely succeed. Six in the second in the clan will have cause for regret; nine in the third’s hidden troops will freeze; the upper nine in the suburbs will not reach the core. To succeed, first see whether the range of your sameness is correct. Range correct, even crossing a river is beneficial; range crooked, more headcount is still only clan.

I asked about a partnership and drew Tong Ren. Still need a contract?

Even more need one. In the wild is a public heart; a public heart is not afraid of black and white. Sameness that will not be written down is more like in the grass, not in the wild. A contract is not distrust. It is making “sameness” from a feeling into conditions you can work with.

I asked about love and drew Tong Ren; the other person only wants a hidden relationship. How do I read it?

The hexagram wants public, wants going out the door. The other person insisting on living only in a small circle is in the clan. You can wait for them to come out. You need not explain a hidden relationship as “we are more special.” Special in a way that has cause for regret. If they never will see light, this relationship’s sameness will not reach in the wild.

How do Tong Ren and Jia Ren 家人 (The Family) differ? Original Tong Ren, changing Pi?

Jia Ren is order under a roof. Tong Ren is a public heart after going out the door. Ask about household matters, look at Jia Ren; ask about working together, look at going out. Original Tong Ren, changing Pi: one heart is walking toward closedness. Check who shut the door again. Eight times in ten, the reason is a small circle angry, the public heart leaving the stage.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.