比 → 大畜
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 26: Great Taming
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 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 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.
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
壅遏隄防，水不得行。火盛陽光，陰蜺伏藏，退還其鄉。
Dikes and dams block and bar; water cannot flow. The fire of blazing sunlight; yin and rainbow hide away, retreating to their source.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth encounters a dam. Dikes and embankments block the flow; water cannot advance. Then fire blazes with solar brilliance, and the yin rainbow retreats into hiding, driven back to its home. The verse plays with elemental control: first water is dammed, then dark vapors are dispelled by yang light. The yin rainbow (陰蜺) in Han-dynasty cosmology was an ill omen associated with female usurpation or malign yin energy. From Holding Together to Great Taming, heaven stored within the mountain restrains and accumulates. The alliance's energy is not wasted in dispersal but banked behind walls of discipline — dark forces subdued, bright power concentrated, awaiting the proper moment.
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