訟 → 明夷
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 6 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Line 1
初六 不永所事。小有言。終吉。
Six at the beginning means: If one does not perpetuate the affair, There is a little gossip. In the end, good fortune comes.
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 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.
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
養虎牧狼，還自賊傷。大勇小捷，雖危不亡。
Raising tigers, herding wolves; they turn and wound their keeper. Great courage wins small victories; though perilous, not perishing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and someone has been raising tigers and herding wolves — nurturing the very forces that will turn and wound the keeper. Great courage wins small victories; though danger is real, destruction is averted. The verse captures the paradox of managing dangerous forces: one cannot eliminate the predators one depends on, only survive them through alertness. From Conflict to Darkening of the Light, fire sinks beneath the earth, brilliance concealed. Mingyi's counsel is to use darkness strategically, governing with veiled intelligence rather than open confrontation. The tiger-keeper survives not by overpowering the beasts but by dimming his own light — yielding enough to avoid becoming the target.
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