訟 → 剝
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 23: Splitting Apart
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 4, 5).
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 4
九四 不克訟。復即命。渝安貞。吉。
Nine in the fourth place means: One cannot engage in conflict. One turns back and submits to fate, Changes one's attitude, And finds peace in perseverance. Good fortune.
Line 5
九五 訟。元吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: To contend before him Brings supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
負牛上山，力劣行難。烈風雨雪，遮遏我前。中道復還，憂者自歡。
Carrying an ox up the mountain, strength fails, the journey hard. Fierce wind, rain, and snow block the way ahead. Turning back midway; the troubled one finds joy.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and an ox-bearer labors uphill. Strength is meager, the road grueling. A fierce wind drives rain and snow, blocking the way ahead. Midway up the slope, the traveler turns back — and the one who worried now rejoices. The return is not failure but wisdom: knowing when to stop is itself a form of success. From Conflict to Splitting Apart, the mountain crumbles upon the earth, stripping away what cannot be sustained. Bo's image demands that one stop building on what is collapsing. The ox-bearer who turns back before the storm destroys him has read the hexagram correctly — retreat in time preserves what forcing ahead would lose.
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