6. Conflict
Judgment
Conflict — if you are in the right, be cautious. Seek compromise. Do not take conflict to the extreme. It is favorable to seek advice from a great person.
Image
Heaven and water move in opposite directions — the superior person reconciles differences from the start.
Changing Lines
The matter does not come to open conflict — withdraw while you can. Small blame, no great error.
Unable to contend — return home and yield. The people of your town — three hundred households — are safe.
Nourished by ancient virtue — perseverance brings good fortune. Follow what is time-honored.
Unable to contend — turn back and accept fate. Change your approach.
Contending — supreme good fortune comes from seeing the great person.
Conferred an ornamented belt — stripped of it three times before the day ends. Do not cling to symbols of status.
Reading Conflict today
When Conflict (訟) appears in a modern casting, it's rarely about ancient kings or dragons in any literal sense. The hexagram speaks in metaphor about a shape your situation is taking right now. The lower abysmal water sits beneath the upper creative heaven, pairing danger, flow, the thing you can't see the bottom of with tireless force, initiative, the will to begin. Read this as the inside meeting the outside: how you carry yourself underneath versus how the situation arrives on top.
The hexagram's recurring themes — conflict, dispute, contention — usually surface in real life around decisions where the question is less "what should I do" and more "what does this moment actually want from me." Read the Legge judgment above slowly, then sit with the changing lines if any showed up in your cast: the lines are where the hexagram's advice becomes specific to your question, not the situation in general.
Questions Conflict answers well
- What does this hexagram say about my current situation?
- Should I act, wait, or step back from this?
- Where is the real change happening underneath the surface?
- Who or what is this hexagram pointing me toward?
Curious how this would read against your own question? Cast Conflict as a live reading in Hexora →