Hexagram 6: Conflict

Flames consume the Sanjō Palace while warriors clash in the courtyard. This thirteenth-century Japanese handscroll depicts the Heiji Rebellion of 1159, the night when samurai supporting the Fujiwara clan attacked the imperial compound in Kyoto. The painting shows combat in vivid detail—soldiers grapple hand-to-hand, arrows fly, horses rear in panic as fire spreads through wooden buildings. Nobles flee in ox-drawn carriages while their guards fight desperately behind them. The scroll format allows the violence to unfold sequentially as you unroll it: first the approach, then the assault, then the burning palace interior where courtiers hide among flames. Two incompatible claims to power—imperial authority versus military force—collide in a single night.

This is Sòng (訟), which combines Heaven (☰) above and Water (☵) below. The character 訟 contains the speech radical (言), suggesting legal disputation and argument. Water flows downward; heaven rises upward—divergent movement, incompatible directions. The Heiji Rebellion began when opposing factions could no longer coexist, when waiting degraded into violence. Ancient diviners saw this configuration when mediation had failed, when opposing interests moved toward direct confrontation.

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The Judgment warns: "Conflict. You are sincere and are being obstructed. A cautious halt halfway brings good fortune. Going through to the end brings misfortune." The handscroll depicts what happens when conflict goes to completion: the palace burns, courtiers die, the imperial family scatters into exile. The attacking samurai won this particular battle but triggered decades of civil war. Ancient texts counseled seeking third-party judgment rather than pursuing victory—"It furthers one to see the great man. It does not further one to cross the great water." Stop before the irreversible act, before crossing into destruction. The Image Text diagnoses the root cause: "Heaven and water go their opposite ways: the image of conflict. Thus in all his transactions the superior man carefully considers the beginning." The rebellion's seeds were planted in earlier decisions, earlier incompatible appointments to power. In the I-Ching's sequence, Sòng follows Xū: when waiting becomes prolonged or frustrated, when neither party will yield position, conflict erupts. The scroll shows the moment when divergent forces collide, when words fail and violence speaks.