訟 → 咸
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 31: Influence
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 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 3
六三 食舊德。貞。厲終吉。或從王事。无成。
Six in the third place means: To nourish oneself on ancient virtue induces perseverance. Danger. In the end, good fortune comes. If by chance you are in the service of a king, Seek not works.
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
鳳凰在左，麒麟處右。仁聖相遇，伊呂集聚。時無殃咎，福為我母。
Phoenix on the left, qilin on the right. The humane and sagely meet; Yi Yin and Lu Shang gather. No calamity at this time; fortune is my mother.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, yet the phoenix stands at the left, the qilin at the right — both supreme auspicious creatures whose appearance signals sage rule. Benevolent and holy beings converge: Yi Yin and Lü Shang gather as one. The time brings no calamity; blessings become the petitioner's guardian. Yi Yin, the cook-turned-minister who founded Shang, and Lü Shang (Taigong), the fisherman-turned-strategist who founded Zhou — two paragons of talent meeting its moment. From Conflict to Influence, the lake rests atop the mountain, open reception above steadfast foundation. Xian means mutual sensitivity: the sage-ministers and their rulers responded to each other like mountain and lake exchanging moisture. When such resonance occurs, conflict has no foothold.
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