訟 → 小過
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 62: Small Exceeding
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 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
青牛白咽，呼我俱田，歷山之下，可以多耕。歲樂時節，民人安寧。
A blue ox with white throat, calling me to the field together. Below Mount Li, much can be plowed. A joyful season; the people are at peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, but the scene opens onto agrarian paradise. A green ox with a white throat calls out, inviting all to the fields below Mount Li — the mountain where Emperor Shun once plowed as a commoner before Yao discovered his virtue. Here the land yields abundant harvests, the seasons bring contentment, and the people dwell in peace. From Conflict to Small Exceeding, thunder atop the mountain — the small bird that flies too high will fall, while the one that stays low succeeds. Small Exceeding counsels modesty in action: exceed in reverence, in grief, in frugality, but not in ambition. The verse captures this perfectly: the deepest prosperity is not imperial grandeur but the simple plenty of well-tended fields beneath a historic mountain.
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