比 → 乾
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 1: The Creative
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初六 有孚比之。无咎。有孚盈缶。終來有它吉。
Six at the beginning means: Hold to him in truth and loyalty; This is without blame. Truth, like a full earthen bowl: Thus in the end Good fortune comes from without.
Line 2
六二 比之自內。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Hold to him inwardly. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
六三 比之匪人。
Six in the third place means: You hold together with the wrong people.
Line 4
六四 外比之。貞吉。
Six in the fourth place means: Hold to him outwardly also. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 6
上六 比之无首。凶。
Six at the top means: He finds no head for holding together. Misfortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
繼祖復宗，追明成康。光照萬國，享世久長。
Continuing the ancestors, restoring the lineage; honoring the brilliant Cheng and Kang. Their light illuminates ten thousand states; their reign endures long.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water rests upon the earth, the image of Holding Together, where alliances form naturally as streams converge. The verse invokes the great Zhou succession: continuing the ancestral line, pursuing the brilliance of Kings Cheng and Kang. Their light illuminates ten thousand states, and their era endures for generations. Kings Cheng and Kang represent the zenith of Zhou governance, an age of such harmony that punishments went unused for forty years. From Holding Together to the Creative, the transformation traces how communal solidarity, when perfected, generates the self-sustaining momentum of heaven itself. What begins as mutual reliance among allies becomes the sovereign energy that needs no external support — the double heaven of Qian, moving ceaselessly of its own accord.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store