謙 → 訟
Hexagram 15: Modesty → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 鳴謙。貞吉。
Six in the second place means: Modesty that comes to expression. Perseverance brings good fortune.
Line 3
九三 勞謙君子。有終吉。
Nine in the third place means: A superior man of modesty and merit Carries things to conclusion. Good fortune.
Line 4
六四 无不利撝謙。
Six in the fourth place means: Nothing that would not further modesty In movement.
Line 5
六五 不富以其鄰。利用侵伐。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: No boasting of wealth before one's neighbor. It is favorable to attack with force. Nothing that would not further.
Line 6
上六 鳴謙。利用行師。征邑國。
Six at the top means: Modesty that comes to expression. It is favorable to set armies marching To chastise one's own city and one's country.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
鑿井求玉，非卞氏寶；名困身辱，勞無所得。
Grinding iron into a needle, days are short and progress slight. Before even a small tool is made, the hair turns white — and still one toils.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth holds a mountain in modesty, but here effort meets unyielding stone. The original verse reads: 'Boring a well to find jade — it is not Bian He's treasure. Fame confounded, body disgraced, labor yields nothing.' The well-digger seeks jade underground but finds only common rock; the allusion to Bian He's jade reminds us that even genuine treasure was rejected twice before recognition. Yet this seeker lacks that treasure entirely — the effort is misdirected from the start. From Modesty to Conflict, heaven and water move in opposite directions, the very image of purposes at cross-purposes. When one's tools do not match one's aim, when the well is sunk in the wrong ground, persistence merely deepens the hole. Conflict's lesson is to plan before acting, not to dig blindly and call it virtue.
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