萃 → 比
Hexagram 45: Gathering Together → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 4).
Line 4
九四 大吉无咎。
Nine in the fourth place means: Great good fortune. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
德施流行，利之四鄉。雨師洒道，風伯逐殃。巡狩封禪，以告成功。
The imperial chariot tours the fields — a hundred flowers bloom. Wherever it passes, pestilence is buried. The river clears, the sea calms, fish and dragons dance — all under heaven return their hearts, calling "ten thousand years!"
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Lake upon earth gives way to water above earth, where Holding Together unites all under one. The original verse reads: virtue flows and spreads, bringing benefit to all four quarters. The Rain Master sprinkles the road, the Wind Earl drives out pestilence. The sovereign completes a grand inspection and performs the feng and shan sacrifices to announce his achievements to heaven. This is the image of imperial virtue radiating outward, nature itself cooperating with the ruler's moral authority. From Gathering to Holding Together, the transformation is seamless: the assembled community coheres into genuine allegiance. What was merely proximate becomes organically bonded, as the sovereign's virtue compels not submission but willing union.
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