需 → 訟
Hexagram 5: Waiting → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 需于郊。利用恆。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Waiting in the meadow. It furthers one to abide in what endures. No blame.
Line 3
九三 需于泥。致寇至。
Nine in the third place means: Waiting in the mud Brings about the arrival of the enemy.
Line 4
六四 需于血。出自穴。
Six in the fourth place means: Waiting in blood. Get out of the pit.
Line 6
上六 入于穴。有不速之客三人來。敬之終吉。
Six at the top means: One falls into the pit. Three uninvited guests arrive. Honor them, and in the end there will be good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
二牛生狗，以戌為母。荊夷上侵，姬伯出走。
Two oxen give birth to dogs, taking the xu-branch as mother. The Jing barbarians invade from the south; the lord of Ji flees.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Clouds above heaven shift to heaven and water pulling apart in Conflict. Two oxen birth a dog, taking the xu-dog as mother — an omen of categorical confusion, things producing what they should not. When natural order inverts, political disaster follows: the Jing barbarians press northward, and the Ji lords are forced to flee. The 'Ji lords' may allude to the many Ji-surnamed Zhou vassal states overrun during the Spring and Autumn period as Chu expanded aggressively into the Central Plains. Anomalous births were standard omen-lore portending dynastic upheaval. From Waiting to Conflict, the nourishing clouds curdle into opposition: heaven and water move in contrary directions, and what should sustain instead destroys.
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