比 → 漸
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 53: Development
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 6).
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
南國少子，方略美好。求我長女，薄賤不與。反得醜惡，後乃大悔。
The young man of the southern land, handsome and of fine bearing. He seeks my eldest daughter; she is scorned and refused. Instead he gains one ugly and base; later comes great regret.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth facilitates matchmaking, but pride spoils the arrangement. A handsome young man from the southern kingdom, accomplished in every way, seeks the eldest daughter in marriage. She is refused as too lowly and cheap for his station. Instead he marries an ugly bride — and bitterly regrets it. The verse is a parable of social miscalculation: dismissing a worthy match out of snobbery and ending with something far worse. From Holding Together to Development, wind atop the mountain traces the gradual, proper unfolding of relationships — like the wild goose's orderly approach in courtship. Jian counsels patience and propriety. The verse shows what happens when those are abandoned: hasty judgment produces lasting regret.
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