比 → 泰
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 11: Peace
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 5).
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 5
九五 顯比。王用三驅。失前禽。邑人不誡。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Manifestation of holding together. In the hunt the king uses beaters on three sides only And forgoes game that runs off in front. The citizens need no warning. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
長生無極，子孫千億。柏柱載青，堅固不傾。
Everlasting life without end; descendants in the billions. Cypress pillars bearing green; firm and unyielding.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth sustains all life, and here that sustenance extends to eternity. 'Long life without limit, descendants numbering a thousand hundred millions' — the verse opens with the grandest blessing in Chinese culture. A cypress pillar bears the weight of blue-green growth, firm and unyielding. Cypress was the wood of ancestral temples, chosen for its incorruptibility; a 'cypress pillar still bearing green' is a family line that endures across centuries. From Holding Together to Peace, the transformation fulfills the promise: Bi's communal bonds expand into Tai's cosmic harmony, where heaven and earth freely exchange their energies. Alliance grounded in mutual trust becomes the interlocking order of heaven below and earth above — the architecture of lasting peace.
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