比 → 革
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 49: Revolution
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
同載共車，中道分去。喪我元夫，獨為孤苦。
Riding together in the same carriage; midway, they part and go. I have lost my husband; left alone in bitter hardship.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth carried two companions in the same carriage, but midway through the journey, their paths diverge. The original husband is lost, and the survivor is left alone in bitter solitude. The shared carriage is one of the Yi's own images — hexagram 38 (Kui/Opposition) speaks of 'loading a wagon' and companions who first separate then reunite. Here, however, there is no reunion: the parting is final. From Holding Together to Revolution, fire within the lake transforms everything it touches. Ge signals irreversible change — the old order burned away, leaving no path back to what was. The verse traces how alliance, once severed at its center, cannot be restored; the revolution of circumstances has made the original bond impossible.
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