既濟 → 比
Hexagram 63: After Completion → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 3).
Line 1
初九 曳其輪。濡其尾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: He breaks his wheels. He gets his tail in the water. No blame.
Line 3
九三 高宗伐鬼方。三年克之。小人勿用。
Nine in the third place means: The Illustrious Ancestor Disciplines the Devil's Country. After three years he conquers it. Inferior people must not be employed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
舜升大禹，石夷之野。徵詣王闕，拜治水土。
Shun elevates Great Yu in the wilderness of Shiyi. Summoned to the royal palace, he bows and is appointed to tame the waters and lands.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water sits above fire, and the sage-king Shun elevates Yu the Great. In the rocky wilderness of Shiyi, Yu toils at his labors. Summoned to the royal court, he is appointed to govern water and earth. According to tradition, Shun recognized Yu's extraordinary capability and charged him with taming the great floods — a task Yu completed by channeling rather than damming the waters. From After Completion to Holding Together, the fire-and-water equilibrium yields to water flowing across the earth, binding all into union. The verse enacts the very mechanism of Holding Together: a sovereign recognizes talent, elevates it, and through that bond the realm coheres. Merit, not birth, becomes the mortar of the state.
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