Conflict
Hexagram 6 · Heaven over Water
Published July 8, 2026 · By Oriens
有孚，窒惕，中吉，終凶。利見大人，不利涉大川。
Conflict. You are sincere and are being obstructed. A cautious halt halfway brings good fortune. Going through to the end brings misfortune.
— I Ching, Hexagram 6 (訟), 有孚，窒惕，中吉，終凶。利見大人，不利涉大川。
Conflict. You are sincere and are being obstructed. A cautious halt halfway brings good fortune. Going through to the end brings misfortune.
Conflict has a natural arc. It begins with sincerity — you believe you are right. Then comes obstruction. The wise person knows when to stop. Halfway through a conflict, if you pause and reassess, good fortune is still possible. But if you press through to the bitter end, even if you win, you lose something essential. The great person knows when to withdraw.
Hexagram 6, Song, addresses the nature of conflict. The lower trigram is Water (danger) and the upper is Heaven (strength). The two move in opposite directions — Heaven tends upward, Water downward — creating an inherent tension. The judgment is unusually pragmatic: a cautious halt halfway brings good fortune, but going through to the end brings misfortune. This is not a moral judgment against conflict but a strategic observation about its costs. The text also advises seeing 'the great person' — seeking wise counsel rather than escalating — and warns against 'crossing the great water,' meaning undertaking major new initiatives during conflict.