Holding Together

有孚比之，无咎。有孚盈缶，終來有它吉。

Joining through trust. No fault. Trust fills an earthen jar; in the end, further good fortune comes.

Trust fills an earthen jar at the yielding bottom line, before joining has public form. Firming this line changes the lower earth trigram to thunder and produces Hexagram 3.

比之自內，貞吉。

Joining from within. Constancy is favorable.

Joining from within occupies the centered second line; if it turns firm, the lower trigram becomes water and the doubled-water figure is Hexagram 29.

比之匪人。

Joining with the wrong people.

Line 3 is yielding at the edge of inner earth, and its stated association is unfitting. Made firm, it changes the lower trigram to mountain and yields Hexagram 39.

外比之，貞吉。

Joining outwardly. Constancy is favorable.

Outward joining begins at Line 4, directly below the firm fifth-line center. Changing this line to firm turns upper water to lake and gives Hexagram 45.

顯比。王用三驅，失前禽。邑人不誡，吉。

Open union. The king hunts from three sides and lets the game ahead escape. The townspeople need no warning. Favorable.

The fifth line is the figure's single firm center, and its three-sided hunt leaves one route open; if the line yields, all six lines are broken and Hexagram 2 results.

比之无首，凶。

Joining without a leader. Misfortune.

The top line lacks a head for its union. Zhu Xi links this image with a failure to reach completion; Legge instead emphasizes a missing beginning. Changing Line 6 to firm turns upper water to wind and produces Hexagram 20.