比 → 家人
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 37: The Family
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 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
懿公淺愚，不深受謀。無援失國，為狄所賊。
Duke Yi was shallow and foolish, refusing sound counsel. Without allies he lost his state; slain by the Di barbarians.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth requires wise leadership to maintain, and Duke Yi of Wei was anything but wise. The verse calls him shallow and foolish, deaf to counsel. Without allies he lost his state, slaughtered by the Di barbarians. Duke Yi of Wei is infamous for loving cranes so extravagantly that he gave them official carriages and salaries. When the Di invaded in 660 BC, his soldiers refused to fight, saying: 'Let the cranes go to battle — they have ranks and pay; how can we?' The state was destroyed. From Holding Together to The Family, wind from fire should warm the household with consistent virtue. Instead, a ruler's frivolity dismantles the domestic order entirely, leaving the family — and the state — to the invaders.
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