未濟 → 比
Hexagram 64: Before Completion → Hexagram 8: Holding Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 曳其輪。貞吉。
Nine in the second place means: He brakes his wheels. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 4
九四 貞吉悔亡。震用伐鬼方。三年有賞于大國。
Nine in the fourth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse disappears. Shock, thus to discipline the Devil's Country. For three years, great realms are awarded.
Line 5
六五 貞吉无悔。君子之光。有孚吉。
Six in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. No remorse. The light of the superior man is true. Good fortune.
Line 6
上九 有孚于飲酒。无咎。濡其首。有孚失是。
Nine at the top means: There is drinking of wine In genuine confidence. No blame. But if one wets his head, He loses it, in truth.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
增祿益福，喜來入室，解除憂惑。
Fortune increases, blessings multiply; joy enters the household; worries and doubts are dissolved.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire above water, nothing yet accomplished, but blessings gather anyway. Salary increases, fortune multiplies, joy enters the household, and all worry dissolves. The verse is remarkably brief and unambiguously auspicious — no dramatic narrative, no historical allusion, only the simple accumulation of good things. From Before Completion to Holding Together, the restless fire-over-water settles into water resting upon the earth, the image of natural congregation. What was unsettled resolves through bonding: people drawn together, resources pooled, anxieties shared and thereby halved. The transformation suggests that incompletion finds its remedy not in individual striving but in alliance — the waters gather on the earth and the community forms around shared abundance.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store