訟 → 豫
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 16: Enthusiasm
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 5, 6).
Line 2
九二 不克訟。歸而逋其邑。人三百戶。无眚。
Nine in the second place means: One cannot engage in conflict; One returns home, gives way. The people of his town, Three hundred households, Remain free of guilt.
Line 5
九五 訟。元吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: To contend before him Brings supreme good fortune.
Line 6
上九 或錫之鞶帶。終朝三褫之。
Nine at the top means: Even if by chance a leather belt is bestowed on one, By the end of a morning It will have been snatched away three times.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
弱雞無距，與鵲格鬭。翅折目盲，為鳩所傷。
A weak rooster without spurs, fighting a magpie. Wings broken, eyes blinded; wounded by the turtledove.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and a weak rooster with no spurs fights a magpie. Wings broken, eyes blinded, it is wounded not even by its chosen rival but by a turtledove — an unexpected third party. The image is of someone entering a conflict utterly ill-equipped and being destroyed by a threat they never saw coming. From Conflict to Enthusiasm, thunder erupts from the earth in a burst of energy. Yet Enthusiasm's explosive force does nothing for the crippled rooster; it merely amplifies the disproportion. The verse warns that Conflict entered without weapons or awareness invites not heroic defeat but absurd humiliation — the wrong fight, the wrong enemy, the wrong outcome.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store