Hexagram 8 · Upper canon
Bi · Holding Together
Sincere closeness beats pleasing everyone.
The figure
- Number
- 8 (Upper canon)
- Upper trigram
- Water (Kan)
- Lower trigram
- Earth (Kun)
- Keywords
- warmth · alliance · sincerity
- Reversed hexagram
- Da You · Great Possession
- Inverted hexagram
- Shi · The Army
The meaning
What the name means Bi is closeness: drawing near to those worth drawing near to.
The picture Water over earth, water going to the low ground and lying close to it with no gap.
The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about closeness and joining up. Finding someone dependable and being sincere with them matters far more than pleasing everybody. Draw close early and look at who you draw close to; leave it to the end and it is too late.
In plain words: what this hexagram says
Draw near to those worth drawing near to. Find dependable companions and be sincere with them; there is no need to please everyone.
The upper trigram is Water and the lower is Earth: Water above, Earth below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.
The judgement
吉。原筮元永貞，無咎。不寧方來，後夫兇。
The image
地上有水，比；先王以建萬國，親諸侯。
The six lines
From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.
- 初六有孚比之，無咎。有孚盈缶，終來有他，吉。
- 六二比之自內，貞吉。
- 六三比之匪人。
- 六四外比之，貞吉。
- 九五顯比，王用三驅，失前禽，邑人不誡，吉。
- 上六比之無首，兇。
To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".