訟 → 旅
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 5 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4, 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 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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
載金販狗，利棄我走。藏匿淵底，悔折為咎。
Carrying gold, peddling dogs; profit makes me flee. Hiding at the bottom of the abyss; regret turns to blame.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and a merchant loaded with gold peddles dogs — a grotesque mismatch of value and commodity that profits nothing. Abandoning the venture, the trader flees. What was hidden in the depths now surfaces as regret, compounding into blame. From Conflict to The Wanderer, fire clings to the mountaintop — the transient traveler who must be cautious and never overstay. Lu's image is the stranger in a strange land, where survival depends on clear judgment and quick departure. The verse captures a merchant-wanderer who misread the market, overcommitted, and must now cut losses and run. The gold hidden in the abyss is sunk cost, and clinging to it only deepens the fault.
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