Hexagram 8 · 水地比

Holding Together

Water · Kun palace

Union and alliance: belonging needs to be voluntary.

Meaning

Water resting on the earth: a union that is close and mutual. This hexagram concerns alliances, membership, and the decision to associate.

Decision Framework

Join, but choose whom carefully.

Decision Guidance

Holding Together is about association. It appears when progress depends on who is standing with you, and the reading is generally favourable to forming the alliance, with one clear condition attached.

The condition is sincerity. The classical warning is against joining too late or too casually, and against the kind of alliance where people are present without commitment. Test whether the interest is mutual before you rely on it, then invest properly in the relationship rather than treating it as a one-off transaction.

Judgment — Classical Text

吉。原筮元永贞，无咎。不宁方来，后夫凶。

EN Good fortune. Consult again: constancy for long brings no blame. The restless come; he who comes last meets misfortune.

The Six Lines — Classical Text

初六：有孚比之，无咎。
EN Initial six: hold to sincerity in union — no blame.
六二：比之自内，贞吉。
EN Six in the second: union from within; perseverance brings good fortune.
六三：比之匪人。
EN Six in the third: associating with the wrong people.
六四：外比之，贞吉。
EN Six in the fourth: union without; perseverance brings good fortune.
九五：显比，王用三驱，失前禽。
EN Nine in the fifth: manifest union; the king drives the game from three sides and lets the front ones escape.
上六：比之无首，凶。
EN Topmost six: union without a head — misfortune.

Keywords

I Ching hexagram 8, Holding Together hexagram, Bi hexagram meaning, hexagram for partnerships