Song · Conflict

The meaning

What the name means Song is quarrelling, going to law: something has gone unsaid and both sides have dug in.

The picture Heaven above, water below: one goes up, one goes down, opposite ways, further apart with every step.

The sense of the whole The whole hexagram is about conflict. It does not urge you to fight it out: a won argument often loses the matter. First ask what you truly want, talk if you can, and bring in a fair third party if you must.

In plain words: what this hexagram says

There is a quarrel in your heart. The hexagram reminds you that fighting to the end is rarely the best way; first ask what you really want.

The upper trigram is Heaven and the lower is Water: Heaven above, Water below. When you read it, first picture the two together as a scene, then set it against the original below. The plain words speak only of stance and do not foretell.

The judgement

有孚，窒。惕中吉。終兇。利見大人，不利涉大川。

The image

天與水違行，訟；君子以作事謀始。

The six lines

From the bottom up, the first line is the lowest. When you cast this hexagram and a line is changing, read the matching one. The original is classical Chinese.

1. 初六不永所事，小有言，終吉。
2. 九二不克訟，歸而逋，其邑人三百戶，無眚。
3. 六三食舊德，貞厲，終吉。或從王事，無成。
4. 九四不克訟，復即命渝，安貞吉。
5. 九五訟，元吉。
6. 上九或錫之鞶帶，終朝三褫之。

To learn how to read a hexagram, see "How to read a hexagram"; for changing lines, see "Changing lines and the resulting hexagram".