噬嗑 → 比
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 履校滅趾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: His feet are fastened in the stocks, So that his toes disappear. No blame.
Line 4
九四 噬乾胏。得金矢。利艱貞。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: Bites on dried gristly meat. Receives metal arrows. It furthers one to be mindful of difficulties And to be persevering. Good fortune.
Line 5
六五 噬乾肉。得黃金。貞厲。无咎。
Six in the fifth place means: Bites on dried lean meat. Receives yellow gold. Perseveringly aware of danger. No blame.
Line 6
上九 何校滅耳。凶。
Nine at the top means: His neck is fastened in the wooden cangue, So that his ears disappear. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
沙漠北塞，絕無水泉；君子征凶，役夫苦艱。
Sandy desert, northern frontier -- utterly without water or spring. The noble man marches toward misfortune; the conscript labors in bitter hardship.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder crack through law and order, but here the scene shifts to a barren northern frontier. Sand and desert stretch across the border wastes, utterly devoid of springs or streams. The gentleman who ventures forth meets only misfortune, and the conscripted laborers suffer bitterly. This is the voice of frontier garrison poetry, anticipating the Tang tradition but already present in Han yuefu: soldiers sent to guard impossible borders, dying of thirst in featureless wastes. From Biting Through to Holding Together, the transformation is poignant — water upon earth should mean solidarity and mutual support, yet the verse describes its absence. Unity is precisely what the desert denies.
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