无妄 → 訟
Hexagram 25: Innocence → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 2).
Line 1
初九 无妄。往吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Innocent behavior brings good fortune.
Line 2
六二 不耕穫。不菑畬。則利有攸往。
Six in the second place means: If one does not count on the harvest while plowing, Nor on the use of the ground while clearing it, It furthers one to undertake something.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
不耕而獲，家食不給。中女無良，長子徒足。踈齒善市，商人有息。
Reaping without plowing; the household cannot feed itself. The middle daughter lacks virtue; the eldest son goes barefoot. Gap-toothed yet shrewd at market; the merchant earns his profit.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Thunder beneath heaven signals honest action, but here everything is mismatched. Reaping without sowing, the household's food runs short. The middle daughter lacks virtue; the eldest son goes barefoot. Yet the gap-toothed one proves shrewd at market, and the merchant earns his profit. This is a world of inverted expectations — those who should provide cannot, while the unlikely succeed. From Innocence to Conflict, the transformation captures how spontaneous disorder breeds contention. When heaven and water move in opposite directions, each party follows its own logic, and disputes multiply. The verse's bitter irony echoes Wuwang's warning: innocent action misfires when the social order is already skewed.
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