比 → 巽
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 6).
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 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
雀行求食，暮歸孚乳；反其屋室，安寧如故。
The sparrow goes out seeking grain; at dusk it returns to nurse its young. Back in its roofed nest; peaceful and calm as before.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth secures the sparrow's daily round. It sets out at dawn to seek food, returns at dusk to brood and nurse its young, and finds its nesting place undisturbed — peaceful as always. The verse celebrates the rhythm of ordinary contentment: departure and return, labor and rest, each cycle completing itself without incident. No great events, no crises — simply the quiet fulfillment of natural purpose. From Holding Together to The Gentle, doubled wind penetrates softly and persistently. Xun's repeated gentleness mirrors the sparrow's repeated flights: each sortie is small, but the accumulation sustains a household. Alliance here is not heroic but domestic — the reliable pattern that keeps life whole.
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