Water lying close upon the earth: people drawing together around one center. The text links good fortune to sincerity, self-examination and not arriving too late.
Earth ☷, whose quality is yielding, lies below water ☵, whose quality is peril. Water on the ground clings to it with no gap, and Zhu Xi reads bi as drawing close and lending support. The single yang line in the fifth place gathers all five yin lines around it, so the hexagram concerns both being the center others turn to and choosing where to attach oneself.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
比，吉。原筮，元永貞，无咎。不寧方來，後夫凶。
Bi. Good fortune. Cast again to examine oneself: with great goodness, constancy and correct firmness, no blame. Those who are uneasy are now coming. The one who arrives late: misfortune.
Bi means drawing close and supporting. The fifth line, firm, central and correct, is the only yang, and the five yin lines gather round it: one person caring for all the states, everyone within the four seas looking to one person. Zhu Xi reads it as the position of one whom others draw near to, and takes yuan shi to mean consulting again to examine oneself: only great goodness, constancy and correct firmness can deserve such loyalty without blame. The uneasy will come as well, but latecomers find the bond already formed. When seeking to join someone else, he says, read it the other way around.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
地上有水，比。先王以建萬國，親諸侯。
There is water on the earth: Bi. The former kings, accordingly, founded the many states and kept close ties with their lords.
Water lying on the ground clings to it with no gap between. Zhu Xi says founding the many states and staying close to their rulers was how the former kings held the whole realm near in the same way. He notes a shift: the judgment is about others coming to oneself, while this image is about going out to draw close to others.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
有孚比之，无咎。有孚盈缶，終來有它，吉。
With sincerity, draw close: no blame. Sincerity fills the earthen jar. In the end, further good fortune comes.
At the very beginning of closeness, what counts is trust. Zhu Xi says that with sincerity there is no blame, and that when the sincerity is filled out, like a jar brimming to the top, further good fortune arrives from beyond what was sought. Closeness here begins with trust and grows as that trust becomes complete.
Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading
比之自內，貞吉。
Drawing close from within. Correct and firm: good fortune.
Soft, central and correct, the second line answers the fifth from inside the lower trigram. Zhu Xi sees closeness that starts within and reaches outward in the proper way, which is why the text calls it good fortune, provided the inquirer is correct in the same way. The tie is genuine because it grows from one's own center.
Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading
比之匪人。
Drawing close to the wrong people.
Yin, off-center and in the wrong place, the third line is hemmed in by yin: the line above it, the line below it, and its partner at the top are all soft. Zhu Xi reads this as attaching oneself to people who are not right for it. The text attaches no verdict, and he says none is needed, since the misfortune is too plain to state.
Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading
外比之，貞吉。
Drawing close outward. Correct and firm: good fortune.
Yin in a yin place, the fourth line sits just below the fifth and turns outward to join it. Zhu Xi calls this correct closeness and the way of good fortune, tied as usual to the inquirer being correct. Where the second line reaches the ruler from within the lower trigram, this one stands beside him in the upper trigram and attaches directly.
Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading
顯比，王用三驅，失前禽，邑人不誡，吉。
Closeness made plain. The king hunts with a three-sided drive and lets the game in front get away. The townspeople are not put on alert. Good fortune.
The single yang in the ruler's seat is firm, strong, central and correct, and every yin line comes to it. Zhu Xi says it shows its closeness openly and without favoritism, like a sovereign who leaves one side of the hunting ring open: those who come are not turned away, those who leave are not chased. Even his own people grasp this and do not stand guard to make sure of a catch. Closeness that is not forced is what the text calls good fortune.
Top line, yin (上六)changing line in the shared reading
比之无首，凶。
Drawing close without a head. Misfortune.
A soft line at the very top has nothing with which to bind those below to it, and Zhu Xi calls that the way of misfortune: closeness without a head. A head is what others gather under; with none, there is nothing for closeness to form around.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.