Six Doors · No. 6
第6卦 讼 Sòng · Conflict
Essence: In conflict, settle midway; fighting to the end ruins both.
I
Judgment
You may be in the right, yet the other side cannot hear it—that is the anatomy of a dispute. Settling midway is fortunate; fighting to the bitter end is not. Bring in a fair arbiter, and postpone every major venture while the conflict runs.
II
Trigrams
Upper
乾 Heaven
Lower
坎 Water
III
The lines
- Line 1Drop the quarrel while it is young; a little gossip follows, but the outcome stays sound.
- Line 2Outmatched, withdraw to your own ground in time, and the trouble touches no one around you.
- Line 3Live on what you have already earned rather than contesting for more; serve if you must, but claim no credit.
- Line 4Unable to win, turn back, revise your stance inwardly, and find peace in what is rightfully yours.
- Line 5Before a genuinely just arbiter, state your case plainly; this is the best resolution conflict allows.
- Line 6Honors won by litigation do not hold; awarded at dawn, stripped away three times by dusk.
IV
All the doors
Every single-step transition available from where you stand.
- Line 110 履 · Treading
Treading behind the tiger; tact keeps you unbitten.
- Line 212 否 · Standstill
Channels closed; withdraw and keep your worth intact.
- Line 344 姤 · Coming to Meet
A small influence arrives; meet it, don't indulge it.
- Line 459 涣 · Dispersion
Dissolve what divides, and the whole regathers.
- Line 564 未济 · Before Completion
Not yet across; the ending is still yours to shape.
- Line 647 困 · Oppression
Squeezed dry; keep your purpose when words carry no weight.
V