剝 → 訟
Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 2
六二 剝牀以辨。蔑貞凶。
Six in the second place means: The bed is split at the edge. Those who persevere are destroyed. Misfortune.
Line 3
六三 剝之无咎。
Six in the third place means: He splits with them. No blame.
Line 4
六四 剝牀以膚。凶。
Six in the fourth place means: The bed is split up to the skin. Misfortune.
Line 5
六五 貫魚。以宮人寵。无不利。
Six in the fifth place means: A shoal of fishes. Favor comes through the court ladies. Everything acts to further.
Line 6
上九 碩果不食。君子得輿。小人剝廬。
Nine at the top means: There is a large fruit still uneaten. The superior man receives a carriage. The house of the inferior man is split apart.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
二人輦車，徙去其家。井沸釜鳴，不可安居。
Two men pull a cart, moving away from their home. The well boils, the cauldron roars; one cannot dwell in peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain collapses upon earth, and heaven diverges from water — the image of Conflict. Two men push a handcart, hauling their entire household away. The well boils and the cauldron screams: the home has become uninhabitable. These are not metaphors but literal signs of catastrophe in Han belief — a boiling well and a wailing pot signal subterranean disturbance, often read as an omen of imminent upheaval. The household must be abandoned. From Splitting Apart to Conflict, structural decay escalates into open dispute. The mountain's erosion was slow and silent; now the conflict breaks the surface. Heaven and water move in opposite directions, and those who once shared a dwelling must part, dragging what remains down a road that leads only to contention.
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