Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 48: The Well

Conflict
Heaven / Water
The Well
Water / Wind
Changing LinesStable Lines

Changing Lines

This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).

Line 3

六三 食舊德。貞。厲終吉。或從王事。无成。

shíincorporating
jiùlong-standing
virtues
zhēnin order to persist
difficult
zhōngbut in the end
auspicious
huòas
cóngpursuing
wángsovereign
shìaffairs
no
chéngachievement

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。

not being
capable of
sòngcontending
returning
to approach
mìnga higher law
withdraw
ānto secure
zhēnthe certain
good fortune

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 6

上九 或錫之鞶帶。終朝三褫之。

huòsomebody
awards
zhīone
pánthe leather big
dàiand ribbons
zhōngby the end of
zhāothe morning
sānone will be three times
chǐstripped
zhīof them

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

Upper TrigramHeaven WaterThe Creative → The Deep
Lower TrigramWater WindThe Deep → The Gentle

Yilin Verse

大壯肥㹀,惠我諸舅。內外和睦,不憂飢渴。

A great, sturdy, fattened cow; a gift to all my uncles. Inside and out in harmony; no worry of hunger or thirst.

— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE

Commentary

Heaven and water oppose, but a great, fattened cow is shared as a gift with the maternal uncles. Inner and outer families are harmonious; no one suffers hunger or thirst. The cow embodies abundance freely distributed through kinship bonds — not traded but given, cementing the ties between households. From Conflict to The Well, water is drawn up through wood, nourishing all who come. Jing's image is the communal well that never runs dry and never moves — a fixed source of sustenance available to everyone. The fattened cow and the inexhaustible well share the same logic: generosity that creates security, kinship that eliminates want. Conflict dissolves when nourishment flows freely through established bonds.

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