Song: watch the start, and the end

Strength above, danger below: heaven over water

Song (訟) is the sixth hexagram. Its upper trigram is heaven, three yang lines side by side; its lower trigram is water, a single yang line with a yin line on either side. The Shuo Gua calls the first strong and the second a pit, and the Commentary on the Judgments (彖传) joins the two words: "Song: above, the firm; below, danger. With danger, and strength: Song." Strength sits above and danger below, and that pairing is a suit.

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Song and its nuclear hexagram Jiaren: a nuclear hexagram restacks lines 2 to 5 of the original.

The previous hexagram, Xu (需), has the same two trigrams with their places swapped: heaven below and water above in Xu, water below and heaven above in Song. The Commentary on the Judgments of Xu says "danger lies ahead" and the Commentary on the Judgments of Song says "above, the firm; below, danger". The same two images, in swapped places, are described in different words.

The judgment: trust, blocked, wary, halfway good, ominous at the end

Song's judgment is longer than most, and it turns several times.

Having trust, but blocked; be wary. Halfway, good fortune; at the end, ominous. Fitting to see the great person; not fitting to cross the great river.

Having trust is being sincere, "blocked" is stopped up, and "wary" is staying alert: there is sincerity, but the road is blocked, so one must be careful. Then come two points on a timeline: halfway, good fortune; at the end, ominous. "Halfway good fortune" can be read as good in the middle of the course or as good when one holds the middle; the Commentary on the Judgments explains it as "the firm has come and found the center", placing the middle in line 2, the central seat of the lower trigram.

The Commentary on the Judgments explains "ominous at the end" as "a lawsuit must not be carried through", and "fitting to see the great person" as "it honors the central and upright". "Not fitting to cross the great river" is explained as "it would enter the abyss".

Heaven and water travel apart: the Great Image (大象) looks at the start

The Great Image for Song reads: "heaven and water travel in opposite directions: Song. The noble person plans the start when beginning any undertaking." Heaven is above and water below, and their courses run against each other, which is why it says "travel in opposite directions". The noble person acts by "planning the start": in beginning an undertaking, laying plans at the outset.

Side by side, the judgment fixes on the outcome, "ominous at the end", and the Great Image on the beginning, "plan the start". With one looking at the end and the other at the start, the six line statements are the several ways of going from the one to the other.

Unable to win, twice: how the six lines end

The six line statements of Song read like six ways a suit can go. "Unable to win the suit" occurs twice, in lines 2 and 4.

Line 1: "Not prolonging the matter. A little talk is heard; in the end, good fortune." The matter is not drawn out, a few words are exchanged, and it ends well. The Small Image says "a suit must not be long drawn out" and "the argument is made clear".

Line 2: "Unable to win the suit; goes home and flees. The three hundred households of his town have no mishap." He cannot win, goes home and hides, and the three hundred households of his town have no disaster. The Small Image says "he flees into hiding" and "suing the one above from below, trouble arrives, to be picked up", meaning it is picked up by oneself (for how above and below are counted, see line positions).

Line 3: "Living on old virtue. Steadfast, with danger; the end is good fortune." Then: "Perhaps serving the king's affairs, with no achievement." The Small Image says only "following the one above brings good fortune".

Line 4: "Unable to win the suit; returns and accepts the command, and changes. Settled in steadfastness: good fortune." Again he cannot win, but this time he comes back, accepts the order, changes his mind, and settles in steadfastness. In line 2 he flees home, and in line 4 he changes his mind: two defeats, two different ends.

Of the six lines only line 5 writes the suit itself with praise: "the suit: primal good fortune", and the Small Image says "because it is central and upright". Line 6: "Perhaps he is granted a leather belt; in the course of a morning it is stripped from him three times." The Small Image says "garments received through a suit are not worthy of respect either".

Now look for the word "end": the judgment has "ominous at the end", line 1 "the end is good fortune", line 3 "the end is good fortune", and line 6 "in the course of a morning". The same word sits in different places, with good fortune in some and misfortune in others.

Eating and drinking lead to disputes: from Xu to Song, then Shi

The Xu Gua strings Xu, Song and Shi into a chain: xu is the way of eating and drinking, eating and drinking will bring disputes, and a dispute will bring a crowd rising up, so what follows is Shi (師), "Shi means the multitude".

Xu and Song are the same two trigrams in swapped places, that is, each other's reversed hexagram. Their judgments take opposite attitudes to crossing the great river.

Xu says "fitting to cross the great river" and the Commentary on the Judgments gives "to go brings achievement"; Song says "not fitting to cross the great river" and the Commentary on the Judgments gives "it would enter the abyss". Song's inverse hexagram is Mingyi (明夷) and its nuclear hexagram is Jiaren (家人).