隨 → 比
Hexagram 17: Following → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 4).
Line 1
初九 官有渝。貞吉。出門交有功。
Nine at the beginning means: The standard is changing. Perseverance brings good fortune. To go out of the door in company Produces deeds.
Line 4
九四 隨有獲。貞凶。有孚在道以明。何咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Following creates success. Perseverance brings misfortune. To go one's way with sincerity brings clarity. How could there be blame in this?
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
同載共輿，中道別去；喪我元夫，獨與孤居。
Riding in the same carriage, midway they part; I have lost my good husband and dwell alone in solitude.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder rests within the lake, and two companions share a single carriage. Midway through the journey, one departs. The speaker loses her lord and husband, left to dwell alone in solitude. The shared carriage is an ancient metaphor for marital partnership — riding together signals union, parting mid-road signals abandonment. The verse captures the grief of severance at its most exposed: not a dramatic betrayal but a quiet divergence, one party simply stepping off the vehicle. From Following to Holding Together, the irony is piercing — Bi promises solidarity and alliance, yet this particular path to it passes through the experience of being left behind, teaching that true belonging is forged in the knowledge of what it means to be forsaken.
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