夬 → 比
Hexagram 43: Breakthrough → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 壯于前趾。往不勝為咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Mighty in the forward-striding toes. When one goes and is not equal to the task, One makes a mistake.
Line 2
九二 惕號。莫夜有戎。勿恤。
Nine in the second place means: A cry of alarm. Arms at evening and at night. Fear nothing.
Line 3
九三 壯于頄。有凶。君子夬夬。獨行遇雨。若濡有慍。无咎。
Nine in the third place means: To be powerful in the cheekbones Brings misfortune. The superior man is firmly resolved. He walks alone and is caught in the rain. He is bespattered, And people murmur against him. No blame.
Line 4
九四 臀无膚。其行次且。牽羊悔亡。聞言不信。
Nine in the fourth place means: There is no skin on his thighs, And walking comes hard. If a man were to let himself be led like a sheep, Remorse would disappear. But if these words are heard They will not be believed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
異國殊俗，情不相得。金木為仇，百賊擅殺。
Foreign lands with alien customs; their natures cannot accord. Metal and wood are sworn enemies; a hundred brigands slaughter at will.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake risen above heaven confronts the surface tension of water resting upon earth. Foreign kingdoms with alien customs — their hearts cannot meet. Metal and wood are natural enemies in the five-phase cycle, and a hundred bandits seize the power to kill. The verse depicts radical incompatibility: nations whose ways are so different that alliance is impossible, elements locked in destructive opposition, and violence filling the vacuum where trust should be. From Breakthrough to Holding Together, the irony is sharp. Holding Together requires genuine mutual affinity, yet this verse shows its dark inverse — forced proximity without shared ground. When the decisive stroke of Breakthrough fails to establish common purpose, what follows is not unity but predatory chaos.
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