比 → 渙
Hexagram 8: Holding Together → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 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 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
一衣三闕，結緝不便；歧道異路，日暮不到。
One garment with three rents; knotting and mending is no easy task. Forking roads and divergent paths; by nightfall one has not arrived.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water upon earth frays at the seams. One garment has three rents, and mending it is awkward and slow. The road forks into divergent paths, and by nightfall the traveler has not arrived. Every image speaks of disintegration and delay: the fabric will not hold, the route will not converge, the daylight will not last. From Holding Together to Dispersion, wind moves across water, scattering what was gathered. Huan's image — wind dispersing water's surface — is the structural opposite of Bi's water resting on earth. What Bi consolidated, Huan dissolves. The verse traces the exact mechanism: small tears unattended become structural failure, and by the time one notices, it is too late to arrive whole.
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