Bǐ, hexagram 08

Stand by

  When Yu the Great had conquered the flood, he held an assembly of the lords on a mountain. He did so in order to found a state, the only way to conquer floods or enemies with joined forces. He “founded innumerable territories, maintaining close relations with the feudal lords”. This was the beginning of the Xia dynasty, the first one of the three big dynasties.
  It is the making of foundations, and it is extremely important that they are perfect. A small imperfection at the beginning will be a huge flaw at the end. So he rejected FangFeng, who arrived too late for the meeting, as being not capable, and beheaded him. “The man who comes late: misfortune”
  “Source of oracle consulting”: when people join forces, everyone has responsibilities. There is not just one master whose words are the law. So there will be meetings with discussions and agreements. To prevent fights, a neutral voice is needed, a voice from the gods. Not one summoned by sacrifices, which brings good fortune, but one summoned by a question, bringing an answer.

Hex.08

Bi³: The character represents two people standing or walking behind each other. Original meaning: to juxtapose. Later to be close to, compare, equal, similar. A person turned to the left, REN², (2) is man, a person turned to the right, BI³, (3 and 4: deceased mother) is a symbol for female. North, BEI³, (5) is two people standing back to back - or a man and a woman. The middle between East and West?
BI³: Equal, similar, compare, just like, accord with (great principles, with what is good and also accomplishing it), successive, come to, when, as, arranged orderly, classified correctly, like preceding cases, category, metaphor, equation (math), mime, to inspect.
BI⁴unite, go together with, to be neighbors, follow, concordant, partisan, sectarian (opposite to zhou, universal), aid, accord with, on behalf of, to be intimate with, combine, join forces, according to expectation, several together, close, dense, tight, put under patronage, to be the origin of, thanks to, accomplish one’s task, every, continuation, succession, before one’s turn, in advance, accomodant, unit of 5 families (Zhou-dynasty), to form a clique.

A bǐmùyú 比目鱼 (together-eye-fish) is a flatfish, a one-eyed fish. But bǐmù is a legendary pair of one-eyed fishes swimming together, and an euphemism for seemingly inseparable man and woman. See hex.15, with a similar story. Together-eye is like one single eye. But the "balance-bird" of hex.15 has two wings which work together.

The trigrams: Water above Earth.
On the earth water flows: standing by. The ancient kings founded innumerable territories, maintaining close relations with the feudal lords.
The earth is what she is, man has to adapt. If he is fluid like water, he will be able to use the best she has to offer, and maybe even seduce her to concede to his wishes. Water is not individual, it searches or attracts its kind, and Earth loves streams. Together with others great works can be accomplished in coöperation with mother Earth.

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