The Seba library treats Bi in 5 passages, across 2 authors (including Wang Bi, Richard John Lynn, Alfred Huang).
Closeness means good fortune. Closeness is a matter of help and support, of compliance and obedience on the part of those below.
Wang Bi’s commentary defines Bi (Hexagram 8) as the foundational condition of mutual support and hierarchical compliance, linking good fortune directly to fundamentality, perseverance, and constancy within the bond of closeness.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994thesis
‘If Bi [Closeness] had no proper beginning, it would result in misfortune here at the end.’ ‘to disregard the Dao when beginning Bi.’
This passage presents competing commentarial interpretations of Bi’s final line, arguing that a union lacking proper origination in the Dao is destined for misfortune — making right beginning constitutive of genuine closeness.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994thesis
when Top Yin and Second Yang of Tai (Peace), Hexagram 11, trade places, the hexagram becomes Bi (Elegance). Here one turns Elegance into plainness, so there is no blame.
Wang Bi’s note on Bi as Elegance (Hexagram 22) traces its structural derivation from Tai and argues that the hexagram’s culminating move is a return from embellishment to plain simplicity, a reversion that avoids blame.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994supporting
The multitude is setting out; it should be kept under control. The text offers a warning that at the very beginning of any situation caution and discipline should not be neglected.
Huang’s treatment contextualizes adjacent hexagram dynamics — the multitude, control, and leadership — offering a political-psychological framework that illuminates the conditions under which Bi-type bonding either succeeds or collapses.
, The Complete I Ching: The Definitive Translation, 1998supporting
A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi / translated by Richard John Lynn.
Bibliographic identification of the primary scholarly source through which Wang Bi’s interpretations of Bi, and the broader hexagram tradition, enter the depth-psychology library.
, The Classic of Changes: A New Translation of the I Ching as Interpreted by Wang Bi, 1994aside