Judgment
— I Ching · classical
有孚，窒惕，中吉，终凶。利见大人，不利涉大川。
You are sincere, yet you are obstructed. A cautious halt midway brings good fortune; carrying the conflict to the end brings misfortune. It furthers one to see a great person. It does not further to cross the great water.
Image
— Great Image
天与水违行，讼，君子以作事谋始。
Heaven and water go against each other: the image of conflict. The superior person, in conducting affairs, considers the beginning carefully.
Six Lines
— Bottom to top
Initial Six · 初六
⚋ yin
不永所事，小有言，终吉。
Do not perpetuate the affair. Some criticism, in the end good fortune.
Settle early. A small loss now beats years of escalation.
Nine in the second · 九二
⚊ yang
不克讼，归而逋其邑三百户，无眚。
One cannot fight the conflict; one returns home and yields. The townspeople — three hundred households — escape calamity.
Recognize unwinnable, withdraw decisively to the home base. Saving the core matters more than the fight.
Six in the third · 六三
⚋ yin
食旧德，贞厉，终吉。
To nourish oneself on ancient virtue induces steadfastness. Danger. In the end, good fortune. If one serves a king, one seeks no works.
Live on accumulated goodwill, hold position, do not start fresh fights for visibility.
Nine in the fourth · 九四
⚊ yang
不克讼，复即命，渝安贞，吉。
One cannot fight the conflict; one returns and submits to fate. Change one's attitude. Steadfastness brings good fortune.
Mature recognition that the legal/political winds favor the other side. Realign to the lawful contract, not the ego claim.
Nine in the fifth · 九五
⚊ yang
讼，元吉。
Conflict adjudicated. Sublime good fortune.
The neutral, impartial arbiter at the top of the structure. Their verdict reshapes the field.
Nine at the top · 上九
⚊ yang
或锡之鞶带，终朝三褫之。
One is awarded a leather belt; before the morning ends it is snatched away three times.
Spoils won through manipulation get stripped repeatedly. Victory without legitimate ground is hollow.
Modern Readings
— Interdisciplinary
Career & Management
Partnership disputes, contractual breach, cross-department blame games. Operating principle: 'no winners in litigation'; settle in the middle, refuse the marathon.
Psychology & Cognition
Defeat the 'competitive ego bias' and the sunk-cost fallacy. Separate the emotional charge from the actual material cost.
Decision Guidance
Find a neutral arbiter. Do not launch new ventures while in conflict (the great water is closed). Settle, save the core, and exit.
Western Parallels
— Cross-cultural
Game theory's 'tit-for-tat with forgiveness' (Axelrod); Sun Tzu's 'highest victory wins without battle'; Ury & Fisher's 'Getting to Yes' on principled negotiation; Stoic emotion-regulation; the legal principle 'a bad settlement is better than a good lawsuit'.
· All texts here come from public-domain editions of the I Ching and supporting commentary.
· Anygua does not predict, score, schedule, ward, or recommend rituals.
· The same input via the same method will always reproduce the same hexagram — verifiable below.