訟 → 睽
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 38: Opposition
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 5).
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 5
九五 訟。元吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: To contend before him Brings supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
秋冬探巢，不得鵲鶵。衘指北去，媿我少姬。
Searching nests in autumn and winter, no magpie chicks to find. Biting his finger, he goes north; I am ashamed before my young wife.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and the search comes too late. In autumn and winter one raids a bird's nest, but the magpie chicks are long gone — they fledged in spring. Biting a finger in frustration, the seeker heads north, ashamed before the young concubine. Every element speaks of missed timing: the wrong season for eggs, the wrong direction for warmth, the wrong face to show to a waiting lover. From Conflict to Opposition, fire rises while the lake sinks — two forces diverging by nature. Kui's image is things that see each other but cannot connect. The verse enacts this perfectly: desire and its object exist in different seasons, and the gap between them is unbridgeable.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store