Hexagram 6
Conflict
訟Sòng
☰ Heaven above, ☵ Water below
Heaven pulls upward and water flows downward: two directions that no longer touch, and out of that moving apart arises the conflict this sign describes.
The JudgmentConflict: you are truthful and are being blocked. A careful halt halfway brings good fortune, pressing on to the end brings misfortune. It is worthwhile to see the great man; it is not worthwhile to cross the great water. Even with right on your side, a reasonable settlement is worth more here than total victory.
The ImageHeaven and water move away from each other: the image of conflict. So the noble one, in everything he does, considers the beginning. Most conflicts are not an accident but a birth defect: they were already in the first agreement, the first vagueness, the first unspoken difference in expectations.
InterpretationYou are in a conflict or heading for one: a dispute over being right, over money, over recognition, or the quarrel at home that keeps going around the same loop. The core is sobering: even someone sincere and in the right is blocked in this time. So aim not at winning but at an outcome everyone can live with, and bring in someone early who understands both sides: in love a third person you both trust, in business a mediator. Meanwhile start nothing big; a running conflict leaks into everything. And look at the Image: heaven and water move away from each other from the very first beginning. Which conflict could have been prevented with one clear conversation beforehand? Learn that, and you will need to cast this sign less and less often.
Place in the sequenceAround eating and drinking, the nourishment of 5, Waiting, discord arises sooner or later; that is why conflict comes next. It forms a pair with 5 · Waiting.
Nuclear hexagram
The nuclear hexagram of Conflict is 37 · The Family: The family: the basis of everything lies in your own circle: clear roles, warmth and clarity together, and an example that backs up your words. It is formed from the inner lines and shows the hidden core of the situation.
The six lines
These texts belong to changing lines in a reading, from the bottom up.
Six at the beginning
If the matter is not dragged out forever, there is some talk, but the end brings good fortune.
The dispute is still young: drop it now and it dies by itself, apart from some muttering afterward. Seeming to be in the wrong for a moment is a small price for years of peace. Most conflicts arise not from the first incident but from the second reaction; skip it. Do not return the first jab: that is how you win without a match.
Nine in the second place
One cannot fight; one goes home and yields, and the people of one's town remain free of guilt.
Against a clearly stronger party, giving way is not a disgrace but a duty of care: fight anyway, and you drag your own people into the defeat with you. Withdraw in time from the procedure or power struggle you cannot win. It takes courage to call off a fight; it is a different courage from fighting, and here it is the right one.
Six in the third place
Living on old merit:
perseverance with an awareness of danger brings good fortune in the end. If you serve a cause, do not claim the works. What you have truly built up in skill and merit, no one can take from you by fighting; so do not fight over it either. Grant someone else the spotlight and stay with the work yourself. Recognition you have to force is not recognition; what is really yours comes back, usually later and through another door.
Nine in the fourth place
One cannot fight; one turns back, yields to fate, changes one's bearing, and finds peace in perseverance:
good fortune. You might be able to win this fight, but the right is not truly on your side, and you know it. Turning back is then not a loss but a liberation: the energy that sat in being right is freed for something better. Dropping a conflict because it is not righteous, while you could have won it, is one of the quietest forms of strength.
Nine in the fifth placeruling line
Laying the dispute before the great man brings sublime good fortune.
There is a good way out of a dispute: putting it before someone just and authoritative enough to decide, and accepting the ruling however it falls. Find that person or that place: a mediator, an arbiter, a confidant you both trust. A fair ruling sets both parties free; endlessly litigating on your own makes both parties poorer.
Nine at the top
Even if a leather belt is bestowed on you by chance, before the morning ends it is torn away three times.
The forced victory: you win, you receive the honor, and from that moment on you must defend it, every day anew. What is conquered through strife is contested through strife; there is no rest, only rounds. Having to fight for your vindication three times a day means you have won nothing. Count that in before you launch the final blow.