Hexagram 8: Bi

Water over Earth · 水地比 · Tendency: Auspicious

Structure

• Number: 8 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷇
• Upper trigram: Kan (Water)
• Lower trigram: Kun (Earth)
• Lines: yin yin yin yin yang yin (bottom to top)

The statement

吉。原筮，元，永贞，无咎。不宁方来，后夫凶。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates closeness, alliance, and seeking reliable support. Suitable for joining a team, repairing relationships, and choosing trustworthy people to work with. The key is to see who is truly of the same mind; don't attach casually out of fear of isolation.

A Buddhist reading

Bi is drawing close and lending support. In the contemplative reading, Ouyi Zhixu makes it the tuning of the thirty seven aids to awakening: seven sets that link one to the next, where nothing stands alone, and that linkage is Bi. Consulting the origin means turning back to ask whether what you actually practice answers to the unborn nature, which is what he calls the whole of practice resting in nature. His counterexample is blunt: those who fall into blank emptiness and deny cause and effect, claiming to walk above the crown of Vairocana, have nothing beneath them when death arrives.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous / Inverted: Hexagram 7: Shithe whole figure turned upside down
• Next: Hexagram 9: Xiao Xu
• Opposite: Hexagram 14: Da Youevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 23: Bolines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.