Holding Together (Bi) for Love: How to Ask, How to Read

Structure and Judgment

Hexagram 8 has Water (Kan) above and Earth (Kun) below; the lower trigram's Earth controls the upper trigram's Water — the inner side is holding the outer in check.

Original Judgment

吉。原筮元永贞，无咎。不宁方来，后夫凶。

How to ask

Make relationship questions specific, with a time frame; one matter per cast:

• 「How will my relationship with them develop over the next three months?」
• 「Is this relationship worth continuing to invest in?」
• 「Can the misunderstanding between us be resolved?」

How to read

With Liu Yao (coin method), tradition reads the response line as the other person and the world line as you: generating or combining world-response lines signal closeness; clashing or controlling ones signal friction. For romance, men traditionally take the Wife/Wealth line as the useful god and women the Official/Ghost line; a supported, strong useful god favors the matter.

With Mei Hua Yi Shu, the reading centers on ti-yong: the trigram holding the moving line is yong (the other person or the matter), the other is ti (you); yong feeding ti and ti controlling yong run smooth, yong controlling ti takes effort. The original hexagram shows the present, the changed one the direction.

If your cast produces moving lines, set the priority by the classical rules — see the moving-lines guide on the main hexagram page.