# Hexagram 13: Fellowship

Canonical page: https://thefreeiching.com/library/13
Last updated: 2026-10-07

```
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━━━━━
━━━  ━━━
━━━━━━━
```

- **Upper trigram:** [Qian 乾](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/qian), Heaven, the creative, strong
- **Lower trigram:** [Li 離](https://thefreeiching.com/trigrams/li), Fire, the clinging, clarity
- **Lines, bottom to top:** 101111 (1 = solid yang, 0 = broken yin)

## Contemporary judgment

Fellowship with others. Genuine community thrives when it is founded on openness and a shared aim larger than the group itself. Private alliances, secret motives, and the impulse to gather only with those already like you: none of these endure. Speak honestly, act transparently.

## Image

Heaven above, Fire rising toward it. The superior person organizes the clans and makes distinctions among things.

## Counsel

Bring what you truly believe into the open. Do not form cliques or nurse private resentments. Welcome those who differ from you if they share the aim; do not admit those who share your surface but not your purpose. The whole is strengthened by honesty, not by sameness.

## The six lines

*Numbered from the bottom upward. These line texts are read when that line is changing in a cast.*

### Line 1

> A nine at the beginning means:
> Fellowship with people at the gate. No blame.

### Line 2

> A six in the second place means:
> Fellowship with people in the clan: humiliation.

### Line 3

> A nine in the third place means:
> He hides weapons in the thicket,
> climbs the high hill before it.
> For three years he does not rise.

### Line 4

> A nine in the fourth place means:
> He climbs his wall; he cannot attack. Good fortune!

### Line 5

> A nine in the fifth place means:
> People bound in fellowship first weep and lament,
> but afterward they laugh.
> After great battles they succeed in meeting.

### Line 6

> A nine at the top means:
> Fellowship with people in the meadow: no remorse.

## Related hexagrams

- **Nuclear (lines 2 to 5):** [44 Coming to Meet](https://thefreeiching.com/library/44)
- **Inverse (turned upside down):** [14 Great Possession](https://thefreeiching.com/library/14)
- **Opposite (every line flipped):** [7 The Army](https://thefreeiching.com/library/7)

## If one line changes

| Changing line | Relating hexagram |
| --- | --- |
| Line 1 | [33 Retreat](https://thefreeiching.com/library/33) |
| Line 2 | [1 The Creative](https://thefreeiching.com/library/1) |
| Line 3 | [25 Innocence](https://thefreeiching.com/library/25) |
| Line 4 | [37 The Family](https://thefreeiching.com/library/37) |
| Line 5 | [30 The Clinging](https://thefreeiching.com/library/30) |
| Line 6 | [49 Revolution](https://thefreeiching.com/library/49) |

Previous: [12 Standstill](https://thefreeiching.com/library/12). Next: [14 Great Possession](https://thefreeiching.com/library/14). [All sixty-four hexagrams](https://thefreeiching.com/library).

*The judgment, image and counsel are original contemporary paraphrases written for The Free I Ching. The line text is the CC0 translation from [jesshewitt/i-ching](https://github.com/jesshewitt/i-ching), derived from Richard Wilhelm's 1924 German edition.*

## Cite this page

The Free I Ching. "Hexagram 13: Fellowship." https://thefreeiching.com/library/13 (updated 2026-10-07).

*The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice. Short quotations with a link back are welcome. Please do not republish a page in full. The open data files at [/data](https://thefreeiching.com/data) are licensed CC BY 4.0.*

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Source: The Free I Ching (https://thefreeiching.com/library/13). The I Ching is a tool for reflection, not a prediction. Nothing here forecasts events or replaces professional advice.