比 → 噬嗑
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 21: Biting Through
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5, 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 4
六四 外比之。貞吉。
Six in the fourth place means: Hold to him outwardly also. Perseverance brings good fortune.
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.
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
蒼梧鬱林，道易利通。元龜象齒，寶貝南金，為吾福功。
Cangwu and Yulin; the roads are easy and commerce flows. Great turtles and elephant tusks; cowries and southern gold -- they serve as our fortune's work.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth opens southern trade routes. Cangwu and Yulin — the remote subtropical regions where Emperor Shun was buried — offer smooth and profitable roads. Great tortoise shells, elephant tusks, cowrie shells, and southern gold become instruments of fortune. These were the luxury goods of the Han-dynasty southern frontier: precious commodities drawn from the lands beyond the Lingnan ranges. From Holding Together to Biting Through, alliance enables commerce by clearing obstacles. Shike's thunder and fire — lightning that illuminates and bites through obstruction — mirrors the verse's confident tone: the road is open, the trade goods flow, and whatever blocks the path is decisively removed. Alliance here is mercantile, and it prospers through decisive action.
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