比 → 咸
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 4).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
杜口結舌，心中怫鬱。去菑患生，莫所告冤。
Mouth shut, tongue tied; the heart seethes with frustration. Fleeing disaster, calamity arises; with nowhere to plead one's grievance.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth should facilitate communication, but here mouths are sealed and tongues knotted. The heart churns with suppressed anguish. Calamity departs only for new troubles to sprout, and there is no one to whom the wronged can appeal. This is the silenced member of an alliance — bound by loyalty or fear, unable to speak the truth that might save the group. From Holding Together to Influence, the irony deepens: Xian's lake upon mountain represents mutual resonance, the open receptivity that allows feeling to flow between hearts. Yet the verse depicts the exact opposite — a closed mouth, a choked spirit. The alliance has become a prison of unexpressed grievance, where influence cannot circulate.
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