比 → 歸妹
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 54: The Marrying Maiden
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 5).
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 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
一身兩頭，莫適其軀。亂不可治，孰為湯漢。
One body with two heads; no way to suit both. Disorder beyond remedy; who shall be Tang, who shall be Han?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth splits into incoherence. One body with two heads cannot govern its own limbs. Chaos becomes untreatable, and the verse cries out: who will be our Tang or our Han — who will restore order through righteous revolution? King Tang overthrew the tyrant Jie to found the Shang; the Han dynasty restored civilization after the Qin collapse. Both represent the archetype of legitimate regime change. From Holding Together to the Marrying Maiden, thunder over lake rushes forward impulsively, and the hexagram warns to 'know the end from the beginning.' A two-headed body is a state that has lost its center — the marrying maiden's precarious position demands clarity about who leads, or the union itself becomes the source of disorder.
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