比 → 豐
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 55: Abundance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 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 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.
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
李耳彙鵲，更相恐怯。偃爾以腹，不能距格。
The plum tree startles the magpie; each frightens the other in turn. Lying belly-down in submission; unable to resist or fight.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth witnesses small creatures in mutual alarm. A wildcat and magpies startle each other in escalating fear. Overwhelmed, the cat lies belly-up, unable to resist or fight back. The scene is almost comic: two animals that pose no real threat to each other locked in a spiral of reciprocal terror, ending in paralysis rather than harm. 'Li er' (李耳) here likely denotes a wildcat rather than Laozi. From Holding Together to Abundance, thunder and lightning should illuminate and adjudicate decisively. Yet the verse shows the opposite of Feng's decisive brilliance: both parties freeze in mutual intimidation, their panic producing not resolution but helpless immobility.
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