解 → 比
Hexagram 40: Deliverance → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5).
Line 2
九二 田獲三狐。得黃矢。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: One kills three foxes in the field And receives a yellow arrow. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 4
九四 解而拇。朋至斯孚。
Nine in the fourth place means: Deliver yourself from your great toe. Then the companion comes, And him you can trust.
Line 5
六五 君子維有解。吉。有孚于小人。
Six in the fifth place means: If only the superior man can deliver himself, It brings good fortune. Thus he proves to inferior men that he is in earnest.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鴈飛退去，不食其雛。禽尚如此，何況人與？
The wild goose flies away in retreat; it does not feed its young. Even birds are thus — how much more so for men?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder over water gives way to water resting upon earth — the tender bond of holding together. A goose flies away and retreats, refusing to eat its own young. If even birds act with such devotion, how much more should humans? The verse uses the natural behavior of wild geese — fiercely protective parents — to shame those who abandon their dependents. From Deliverance to Holding Together, the release from crisis leads to the question of loyalty: will the freed person return to those who need them? Water upon earth flows toward its natural gathering place, and the goose circles back. True deliverance is not flight from bonds but return to them.
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