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Hexagram 58 — Song, Conflict
Chronological no. 58 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 6 · 訟
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the father
the middle son
Heaven and Water move apart in opposite directions: the image of conflict. One rises, the other descends; their very natures separate them, and no surface compromise can reunite them. This is the figure of fundamental opposition, one that is not resolved by good will alone. Thus the noble one, at the very start of any undertaking, weighs its end: he does not enter a dispute without having measured, in advance, how far this path may lead him.
The discord of opposing forces seeks its way out. Conflict is neither avoided nor sought: it is recognized for what it is, a tension between two movements that cannot, by nature, coexist without friction. The wisdom here is not to win at all costs, but to know when a quarrel deserves to be carried through and when it deserves to be left in time.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, emptiness closes over: what was still an opening begins to fill.
The steadied earth reaches its limit: the solidity that upheld the structure is about to change its nature.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the action of man, fullness meets its limit: the initiative that led the figure folds back upon itself.
At the sage's seat, fullness hollows out: the force that governed the figure from its center is about to invert.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 5 — Ming Yi, Darkening of the Light (63 − 58 = 5): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 5, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
57 — Wu Wang, Innocence · 59 — Lu, Treading
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☰ Qian): 56 — Pi, Standstill · 57 — Wu Wang, Innocence · 59 — Lu, Treading · 60 — Dun, Retreat · 61 — Tong Ren, Fellowship with Men · 62 — Gou, Coming to Meet · 63 — Qian, The Creative
Same lower trigram (☵ Kan): 2 — Shi, The Army · 10 — Jie, Deliverance · 18 — Kan, The Abysmal · 26 — Kun, Oppression · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 42 — Wei Ji, Before Completion · 50 — Huan, Dispersion
