I Ching Bi Meaning: Hexagram 8 Explained

Draw Bi 比 and students easily brighten: there is a patron, someone covering me, I can lean. Bi is indeed closeness, attaching, alliance. Its first lesson is not “go be good with someone.” It is “what kind of person are you following.”

Attach to a superior person and you can. Attach to the wrong person and the line calls them 匪人, not the right people. Come late and it is 後夫凶, the late husband is unlucky. Bi is not a social-skills class. It is a taking-sides class. Take the right side: water on the earth, the earth is moistened. Take the wrong side and you sink with that pit.

Shi 師 is a host; a host that has risen must hold together. People cannot stay a pile. They will lean, draw close, pick a side. Ask about partnership, joining a group, whom to rely on: this hexagram is the proper work.

The image: Kan above Kun below, Holding Together

Bi is Kan 坎 above, Kun 坤 below. Water above, Earth below: Holding Together. Water flows on the earth; the earth receives the water: closeness, comparison, attaching to each other. Kun is the host, following; Kan is danger, and also need. A host gathering toward where there is water: that is Bi.

Above and below are most easily reversed with Shi. Shi is Earth-Water The Army: Earth above, Water below, troops hidden in the people. Bi is water above, earth below: water coming to be close to earth. Reverse them and you read alliance as war, or leading a team as friendship. Neither advice is right.

The Xugua says: 「眾必有所比。」 A host must have something to attach to. Draw Bi and the key is often not whether ability is enough. It is whom you rely on, who relies on you, whether this relying is correct.

The judgment: 「比吉。原筮，元永貞，無咎。不寧方來，後夫凶。」 Holding together itself is lucky; attaching can open. 原筮: trace back, think again carefully: is this covenant’s original intent correct? 元永貞: correct from the start, and lastingly correct, then no blame. The unsettled quarters come to attach. The late husband is unlucky: the one who comes late, who only at the last decides to lean over, unlucky.

The late-husband line I always teach through in class. It is not telling you to be snobbish. Alliance has a window. The troop is already formed, the rules set, the benefits already divided, and you come to show loyalty: the principal will guard against you, and those who came first will too. Partnership, buying in, joining a party, joining a team: all have this moment.

The Xiang says water on the earth, Bi; the former kings founded the ten thousand states and drew the lords close. A king founds by drawing lords close, not by everyone saying one sentence of support. Draw Bi and see whether you are founding, or only brushing a sense of presence.

Career and wealth when you draw Bi

Ask about career and draw Bi: good for finding a backer, an alliance, cooperation that can moisten each other — not for going alone. However good the product, this hexagram still asks: on which earth is your water flowing? No earth, water scatters; no water, earth dries.

Partnership and buying shares are Bi’s typical questions. First do the original divination: is the other person 匪人, can the covenant be lastingly correct. Touching cups and calling brothers looks least like Bi’s correctness. Writing exit terms, splits, and who decides: that is lasting correctness. The unsettled quarters come: when the market shakes, people will come to lean on you, and people will come asking you to lean on them. Those who come are unsettled; you need correctness even more. Do not grab every hand because you are also panicked.

For wealth, Bi’s money often comes from relations: introductions, an alliance, inside a group, a patron lifting you. It can be there. Do not hang all finances on one person. Nine in the fifth, open holding together, the king hunts on three sides, loses the game in front: hold together in the open, leave one side of the net, the game that ran ahead need not be hunted to the end. In business: an alliance can be public; opponents need not be driven out; leave a road for those who do not come in. The townspeople need not be warned, luck: your own people need not panic. If insiders are frightened by your alliance, Bi is not lucky.

Job-seeking and Bi: relying on introductions, a circle, a manager lifting you, fits the hexagram better than spraying applications. Still watch six in the third: holding together with the wrong people. Follow the wrong manager, enter the wrong circle, the tighter the closeness, the deeper the sink. If in an interview this group’s smell is wrong, Bi allows you not to enter. Not entering is not being a loner. It is not being the late husband, and not being a follower of the wrong people.

Joining a group, a society, taking a side: first ask, am I the initial six’s holding together with sincerity, or the upper six’s holding together without a head? Sincerity is real truth. Without a head is attaching with no head, no principal, no principle: unlucky.

Love and people when you draw Bi

Ask about love and draw Bi: the essence of the relationship is attaching. Who comes close to whom, who is willing to be the earth that receives, who is willing to be the water that moistens: that decides whether this stretch can be lucky.

If you are single and draw Bi, a connection from inside a circle is more likely: a friend’s introduction, the same group, being taken to meet someone. Shutting yourself at home waiting for heaven to drop someone does not look like Bi. Introductions still need the original divination. If the introducer is the wrong people, be twice as careful about who is introduced. Late husband unlucky in love: the other person already has a stable circle, a choice in progress, and you rush in last to declare yourself — the place will look bad. Not that you cannot love. Coming late, you bear the cost of late. Do not blame them for not treating you as first.

If you are already together, Bi advises closeness, and closeness to the right people. Six in the second, holding together from within, correct and lucky: draw close from your own home, your own inner heart; correctness is luck. Building intimacy on shared life and shared values is steadier than building it on fighting outsiders together. Six in the fourth, holding together outward, correct and lucky: attaching outward to a correct person, a correct cooperation, can also be lucky. A couple relying together on a right elder, a right friend, is holding together outward, not betrayal.

What you most have to guard is six in the third, holding together with the wrong people. The group a partner takes you to meet, the side of the family pulling you to stand, the little circle at work asking you to undermine someone together: all may be the wrong people. Holding together with the wrong people: the line does not even bother with luck or unluck. It only names: what you are close to is not what a person should be close to. Draw this line: reduce closeness, pull back — more effective than trying to convert their friend circle.

Upper six, holding together without a head, unlucky. Intimate to the point of having no head, no principle of your own; they say east and you go east. Headlessness in love is often misread as giving. Bi says that is unlucky. You can be close. The head has to be there.

Five lines of Bi you must know

Initial six: 有孚比之，無咎。有孚盈缶，終來有他吉. Hold together with sincerity, no blame. Sincerity full as a jar overflowing, and in the end there will be further luck. Draw the initial six: alliance, a confession, joining a group — you can take the initiative, provided the sincerity is real. Empty talk, scene talk, mix in first and see: the jar is empty, nothing overflows. In work, fill credit first, then ask to be taken along. In love, be true first, then close.

Six in the third: 比之匪人. Holding together with people you should not. Draw six in the third: stop socializing first. Not every connection should be deepened. A partner who loves back doors, a circle that enjoys hurting others, a workplace clique pulling you into false books: all are the wrong people. This line has no consolation prize. Recognizing it is the homework.

Six in the fourth: 外比之，貞吉. Hold together outward; correctness is luck. Six in the fourth is already near nine in the fifth: attaching outward, upward, to a correct principal is right. Draw six in the fourth: you can find a patron, rely on a legitimate platform, join an open organization with clear rules. Do not drop the word correct. Outward holding together that becomes flattery, selling friends, is not this line’s luck.

Nine in the fifth: 顯比，王用三驅，失前禽，邑人不誡，吉. Hold together openly, like the Son of Heaven hunting, driving on three sides, leaving one; the game that ran ahead, let it go. The townspeople need not fear, luck. Draw nine in the fifth: you are the one being relied on, or you have the right to decide who comes in. The practice is open, generous, no secret list. Those who should come come; those who want to go need not be hunted. Your own people at ease: then this holding together is lucky. Bosses, parents, group admins: all can use it.

Upper six: 比之無首，凶. Holding together without a head. Draw the upper six: you may have followed the wrong one, followed late, followed until you have no self. The group is already formed; you are still on the edge forcing closeness; or the principal is gone and you are still showing loyalty to an empty seat. The unluck is in having no head, not in closeness itself. Finding the principle again is more useful than tightening the follow.

The initial six needs sincerity. Six in the third avoids the wrong people. Six in the fourth’s outward holding together must be correct. Nine in the fifth is open and generous. The upper six cannot be without a head. Bi’s luck is all built on “holding together with the right ones.”

The classroom misunderstanding I correct most often

Taking Bi as “meet more people and there will be a patron.” Bi is not a count of name cards. Original divination, lastingly correct: being close to one correct person is more useful than twenty scene people. Some people hear late-husband unlucky as fate: I am already late, so it is over. The late husband is the one who came late and still wants to be principal, still wants the largest share. Come late and you can assist, enter next round. You need not be that husband. Insisting on being him: that is the unluck.

In practice I have students who draw Bi write two names: the person I want to hold together with, and the person I should not. If you cannot write the second name, six in the third will teach you. If you can write it and still go to the banquet, that is not fate. That is you pouring the jar out for the wrong people.

Ask about partnership, joining a group, whom to rely on, and Bi is the most blunt. Draw close to superior people, keep far from the wrong people, come inside the window, and if late do not grab the head. The head stays on your own neck.

I Ching Bi further reading

Bi comes from Shi; a host must hold together. Compare: I Ching Shi Meaning | Hexagram 7 How to Read: The Army and Leading a Host. After holding together you have to store; the next hexagram is Xiao Xu 小畜: I Ching Xiao Xu Meaning | Hexagram 9 How to Read: Small Accumulation, Clouds Without Rain. If attaching needs the place lowered, also read I Ching Qian (Modesty) Meaning | Hexagram 15 How to Read: All Six Lines Fortunate.

I Ching Bi FAQ

Does drawing Bi mean there is definitely a patron?

There is a chance to attach. A patron does not automatically land. Closeness like six in the third will treat disaster as a patron. First the original divination: is this person correct, will this circle last, is your sincerity real. Two of three empty: do not celebrate.

Buying in is already late, I drew late-husband unlucky. Can I still enter?

You can enter. Do not enter as the principal, the largest shareholder, or as “I came now and want all past decision rights made up.” Late-husband unluck is in fighting for that husband’s place. Being a follower, a small share, talking next round: safer than squeezing into the core.

Holding together with the wrong people in love: should I break up?

What you first separate from is that wrong circle, that wrong behavior — not necessarily the person at once. If the person will not leave the wrong people, what you are close to is that mass of stuff. Give a deadline and see what they choose. Unlimited converting, and the upper six’s headlessness will take over.

Nine in the fifth, open holding together: will standing publicly cause trouble?

This line actually wants public. Secret holding together, private promises, and the townspeople will be warned, will panic. Open, leave a living road, do not hunt those who exit: less trouble. A secret alliance looks like wanting to net all the game in front, and the hexagram’s qi has gone past.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.