比 → 離
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 30: The Clinging Fire
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 3
六三 比之匪人。
Six in the third place means: You hold together with the wrong people.
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
比目四翼，來安我國。福善上堂，與我同床。
The paired-eye fish with four wings, come to bring peace to our land. Fortune and goodness ascend the hall; sharing my bed.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth brings the paired-eye fish and shared-wing birds to settle in the land, bearing good fortune. These mythological creatures — the one-eyed fish that swim only in pairs, the one-winged birds that fly only together — embody perfect interdependence. Blessings ascend to the hall and share the bed: intimacy, trust, and mutual completion. From Holding Together to The Clinging, the transformation illuminates how partnership becomes radiance. Li's doubled fire — 'the great person continues the light and illuminates the four directions' — mirrors the paired creatures whose halves make a whole. The alliance of Bi, when grounded in genuine complementarity, kindles into the steady, sustaining brightness of Li.
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