比 → 恆
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 32: Duration
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
牽尾不前，逆理失臣。忠莫往來，惠朔以奔。
Pulling the tail, not advancing; contrary to reason, losing ministers. The loyal cannot come and go; Hui Shuo flees in haste.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth loses its forward momentum. Something pulls at the tail, preventing advance; principles are inverted and ministers lost. Loyalty can no longer come and go freely, and the worthy adviser Huishuo is forced to flee. The verse may allude to the flight of loyal officials when a state's governance collapses — a pattern repeated throughout the Spring and Autumn period. The tail-pulling image recalls the 'tail too large to wag' motif of structural imbalance. From Holding Together to Duration, thunder over wind should establish constancy, but the verse reveals a perverse duration: stagnation made permanent. The alliance endures, but what endures is the dysfunction — loyalty expelled, disorder entrenched.
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