比 → 屯
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 3: Difficulty at the Beginning
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 1).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
取火流泉，釣鰟山顛。魚不可得，火不肯燃。
Seeking fire from a flowing spring, fishing atop a mountain peak. The fish cannot be caught; the fire will not ignite.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth draws things together, but some pairings are doomed from the start. The verse depicts someone trying to strike fire from a flowing spring, and angling for bream atop a mountain peak — both acts of radical mismatch. The fish cannot be caught, the fire refuses to kindle. Every element is in the wrong place: water where fire is needed, stone heights where water should flow. From Holding Together to Difficulty at the Beginning, the transformation captures perfectly how misaligned alliances produce only frustration. Zhun's clouds and thunder promise potential, but without correct placement, that potential remains locked. The bonds of Bi require the right partners in the right circumstances; forced unions generate nothing but wasted effort.
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