謙 → 比
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
九三 勞謙君子。有終吉。
Nine in the third place means: A superior man of modesty and merit Carries things to conclusion. Good fortune.
Line 5
六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: No boasting of wealth before one's neighbor. It is favorable to attack with force. Nothing that would not further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
安息康居，異國同廬。非吾邦域，使伯憂惑。
Parthia and Kangju, foreign nations sharing one lodge. Not our native domain; it makes the elder anxious and troubled.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds a mountain within, and the verse opens onto the distant kingdoms of Anxi and Kangju — Parthia and the Sogdian realm, foreign lands sharing a single dwelling. These are not our territories, and the envoy or elder grows troubled and uncertain. Anxi and Kangju were Central Asian states known to Han dynasty diplomats along the Silk Road, exotic and remote. From Modesty to Holding Together, water rests upon earth, the image of alliance and union. Yet the verse reveals the anxiety of forced togetherness among strangers: sharing quarters in alien lands breeds worry rather than fellowship. Holding Together demands a center of trust; without it, proximity produces only discomfort. The modest one abroad finds that humility alone cannot bridge the gulf between foreign worlds.
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