比 → 夬
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 43: Breakthrough
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
五銑鐵頤，倉庫空虛。賈市無盈，與利為仇。
Five worn iron cauldrons; the granary and storehouse stand empty. The marketplace yields no profit; at odds with gain.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth drains away, leaving the granaries hollow. Five copper coins buy only iron jaw-pieces — worthless hardware. The storehouses stand empty, merchants cannot turn a profit, and commerce itself becomes the enemy of gain. The 'iron jaw' (鐵頤) may be an implement or a metaphor for something that consumes but produces nothing. From Holding Together to Breakthrough, lake ascends above heaven in an image of dangerous overflow. Yet the verse shows the opposite problem: not excess but depletion. Gua's breakthrough is meant to decisively resolve stagnation, but when the treasury is already bare, there is nothing left to break through to. Alliance without resources is a hollow shell.
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