比 → 坎
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 29: The Abysmal Water
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 2).
Line 2
六二 比之自內。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Hold to him inwardly. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
恆山浦壽，高邑所在。陰氣下淋，洪水不處，牢人開戶。
Mount Heng and Pushou; where the high city stands. Yin qi drips below; floodwaters do not stay -- the prisoner's door is opened.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth turns to water upon water — doubled peril. Hengshan's longevity-blessed heights and the elevated town of Gaoyi seem secure, yet yin vapors seep downward and floodwaters refuse to stay in their channels. The imprisoned are released as the waters rise, breaching their cells. Hengshan, the Northern Sacred Mountain, symbolizes permanence, yet even permanence cannot withstand nature's deluge. From Holding Together to The Abysmal, Bi's orderly water-upon-earth becomes Kan's relentless water-upon-water: danger layered upon danger. The verse warns that no fortress of alliance, however ancient or well-positioned, can resist when the element that once sustained it — water — turns uncontrollable and threatens from every direction.
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