大有 → 訟
Hexagram 14: Great Possession → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5).
Line 1
初九 无交害。匪咎。艱則无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: No relationship with what is harmful; There is no blame in this. If one remains conscious of difficulty, One remains without blame.
Line 3
九三 公用亨于天子。小人弗克 。
Nine in the third place means: A prince offers it to the Son of Heaven. A petty man cannot do this.
Line 5
六五 厥孚交如。威如。吉。
Six in the fifth place means: He whose truth is accessible, yet dignified, Has good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
虎臥山隅，鹿過後朐。弓矢設張，猬為功曹，伏不敢起；逐至平野，得我美草。
The tiger crouches at the mountain's edge; a deer passes behind it. Bows and arrows are set and drawn; the hedgehog serves as marshal. Crouching, it dares not rise. Chased onto the open plain; it finds sweet grass.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire blazes high in heaven as a tiger crouches in a mountain corner while a deer passes behind it. Bows are drawn and arrows nocked, but it is the hedgehog who serves as Chief Clerk, keeping the tiger pinned to the ground, too intimidated to rise. The prey is then driven onto the open plain to graze in peace. The 'hedgehog as Gongcao' draws on natural lore from the Shiji's Treatise on Divination: the spiny hedgehog can subdue even the tiger. The Gongcao was the most powerful subordinate official in a Han commandery, controlling personnel through bureaucratic authority rather than brute force. From Great Possession to Conflict, abundance must be defended through institutional restraint. Raw power is checked not by greater power but by the small, well-armored functionary who controls the system.
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