比 → 履
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 10: Treading
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 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
驪姬讒喜，與二嬖謀。譖殺恭子，賊害忠孝。申生以縊，重耳奔逃。
Li Ji slandered with cunning, plotting with two favorites. They defamed and killed the respectful prince, harming the loyal and filial. Shen Sheng hanged himself; Chong Er fled in exile.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth pools trust — but when a scheming consort poisons that trust, the state fractures. Lady Li of Jin, delighting in her slanders, conspires with two court favorites. She frames the dutiful crown prince Shensheng for attempted patricide, driving him to hang himself. The loyal and filial are destroyed: Chong Er, the future Duke Wen of Jin, flees into nineteen years of exile. This is the Turmoil of Lady Li, recorded in the Zuo Zhuan, one of the Spring and Autumn period's most devastating dynastic crises. From Holding Together to Treading, the transformation is bitter: Bi's communal water gives way to Li's image of treading upon a tiger's tail. When alliance is corrupted from within, every step forward courts destruction.
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