I Ching Song Meaning: Hexagram 6 Explained

Draw Song 訟 and some people are excited: at last I can get justice. Some are afraid: am I going to court. Both feelings are too full.

Song is contention, words, two breaths meeting. It can be a lawsuit. It can also be locking horns in a meeting, turning over old accounts at home, going back and forth online. What the hexagram teaches is not how to win to the end. It is how to stop in the middle, and not fight Song into a final.

Xu 需 is food and drink. Not enough food, unfair division, and the next hexagram is Song. The Xugua line is ugly and sharp: as soon as people meet eating, occupying, who has more and who has less, they easily quarrel.

The image: Qian above Kan below, Conflict

Song is Qian 乾 above, Kan 坎 below. Heaven above, Water below: Conflict. Qian goes up; Kan sinks down. Two forces run opposite ways. One wants to advance, to be hard; one is in danger, in calculation. Meet and it is Song.

Most often reversed with Xu. Xu is Water-Heaven Waiting, water above; Song is Heaven-Water Conflict, Heaven above. Xu is danger ahead, wait first. Song is danger below, and above still wants to be strong, so they quarrel. Misread the image and students will cross a great stream when they should settle, and sue first when they should wait.

The Xugua says: 「飲食必有訟。」 Food, use, names: more of them, and there is contention. Draw Song and first find “which piece of food is being fought over”: money, post, face, children, a house, the breath of who is right. Find it, then you know whether you can yield.

The Tuan says: 「訟，上剛下險。險而健，訟。」 Above hard, below dangerous; danger and still strong: that is Song’s character. A person still showing off in unease, and speech, reasons, evidence all become weapons. Weapons out, and the relationship turns from talking to fighting.

The judgment is this hexagram’s operating manual: 「有孚，窒。惕中吉，終凶。利見大人，不利涉大川。」 There is sincerity: you may have reason, have truth. 窒: this breath is blocked. 惕: be afraid, be cautious. Lucky in the middle: stop in the middle, hold the middle path, then luck. Unlucky at the end: fight Song to the finish and it is mostly unlucky. Beneficial to see a great person: go see someone who can judge, mediate, a real authority. Not beneficial to cross a great stream: not the time for a long journey, expanding the battlefield, or dragging the matter onto water you cannot manage.

In class I shrink the judgment to one sentence: you can have reason, but use the reason to stop, not to fight to the end.

Career and wealth when you draw Song

Ask about career and draw Song: there is already friction at work — grabbing credit, dumping blame, contract clauses, IP, labor terms, splitting a partnership. The overall strategy is stop suing, settle first, keep evidence. Stopping a suit is not caving. The judgment already wrote unlucky at the end. If your goal is “get everything back,” Song will burn your time, name, and cash together. Even if they finally grant you a sash, it may be taken away three times before noon.

For wealth, Song is one of the hexagrams that spends money. Lawyer fees, time cost, a partnership breaking, clients watching: they will come. Ask “can I get a sum by fighting this,” draw Song, and even with sincerity treat it as blocked: money may not come in, and if it comes in it will be stuck. Negotiating a settlement, cutting toxic clauses from a contract: that already counts as using luck in the middle. Backing the other party into a corner often buries your own market with them.

Beneficial to see a great person: at work that is finding a third party — a manager, a mediator, a lawyer, an accountant, a guild, an elder who can speak. Day and night fighting your opposite yourself, no great person in the middle, and caution becomes insomnia, still without a middle.

Not beneficial to cross a great stream: do not open a new battlefield now. The old one is not closed, and you sue another, open another product line, declare war in public: the stream will flood both banks. Keep files, mail, chat records. Keeping evidence is caution, not preparing to fight for life. Evidence is for seeing a great person, for reconciling accounts at a settlement — not for humiliating the other person line by line in a group chat.

Interviews or a job change and Song: there may be a dispute with a former employer, or the new place is full of talk. Clear the old legal relation before you go. Take Song across a great stream and the new place will smell gunpowder first.

Love and people when you draw Song

Ask about love and draw Song: the relationship is fighting over reason. Who loves more, who lost more, who went cold first, who should apologize: every sentence has sincerity, every sentence is blocked. The more reason you have, the more dangerous the other person; the stronger they are, the more you want to win.

The worst then is fighting the pillow war to a final: a breakup statement, public exposure, pulling children in to take sides, turning both sets of parents into a legal team. Unlucky at the end is not necessarily losing in court. It can be winning the sentences and losing the person.

What fits the hexagram: a little talk, then stop. Initial six, 「不永所事，小有言，終吉」: do not make this matter long; a little talk, and in the end luck. Point the quarrel and leave it. Do not settle ten years of old accounts in one night. Seeing a great person can be counseling, an elder both trust — not a friend who will definitely help you scold the other person. That kind of friend fattens Song.

If you are single and draw Song, the getting-to-know-you already is arguing, examining, comparing who is more right. Even if there is a spark, it is like exercising in danger, and easily becomes a long lawsuit. Stop first. See whether any warmth is left after leaving the fight. If only right and wrong remain, it is not a partner. It is plaintiff and defendant.

Workplace people, family group chats, and Song: reply less in long essays. The middle of luck-in-the-middle is often not saying that one extra sentence. Sincerity can be written in a memo. It need not be sent. Send it and you have crossed a great stream.

Four lines of Song you must know

Initial six: 不永所事，小有言，終吉. Do not make this matter long. A little talk, luck in the end. Draw the initial six: it is Song’s entrance, and the best place to stop. Someone is already talking, already a little unpleasant: stop here, luck. A short letter that does not humiliate is more useful than writing a judgment. At home it is not turning over all of last night tonight. Not making the matter long is this line’s technical name.

Nine in the second: 不克訟，歸而逋，其邑人三百戶，無眚. You cannot win the conflict; return and flee. Three hundred households in the town: small ground, few people, no great disaster. Draw nine in the second: it is not that you have no guts. It is that you cannot overcome this fight. The opponent may be harder, the place worse, the evidence not enough. Return and flee: withdraw from the battlefield to a range you can hold. Resign, change teams, shrink the company, pull the quarrel from public back to private: all are fleeing. Show off and fight on, and disaster will come.

Nine in the fourth: 不克訟，復即命，渝安貞，吉. Again, cannot win the conflict. Return to the original mandate, the original lot, the ruling you should hear. 渝 is change; after changing, rest in correctness, luck. Draw nine in the fourth: the point is changing your mouth, attitude, terms — not changing into being better at suing. Accept a superior’s ruling, a mediation, that this job was never yours to decide: that will be lucky. Nine in the fourth is already leaning hard, and can still return, so luck. Hard all the way is not this line.

Upper nine: 或錫之鞶帶，終朝三褫之. A sash is the belt of official dress, honor, a name-vessel you won. Perhaps they give it to you, and strip it three times in one morning. Draw the upper nine: this is the line that fought Song to the end. On the surface you won; name, post, damages may all arrive. The hand is still hot and they are taken back, in public. Restored to office and taken down again, an online “win” reversed, winning face in the family and losing every relative: all look like three strippings. This line is unlucky-at-the-end taught in objects. See the upper nine, and even if the other party is yielding, stop quickly. Do not add a last cut.

The initial six is a little talk and luck. Nine in the second is withdraw if you cannot win. Nine in the fourth is change back to your lot. The upper nine is win and still be stripped. All four lines say the same thing: Song must not be completed. If it is completed, do not be glad too soon.

The classroom move I correct most often

Students draw Song and go collect evidence to open war, and call that sincerity. Sincerity is having reason. Blocked is that this reason currently cannot get through. Caution is the action. The right order is: first stop expanding, first keep evidence, first find a great person, first open settlement terms. Opening war is the last step, not the first. Take the last step as the first and the judgment’s unlucky-at-the-end will be painfully accurate.

Another error: not beneficial to cross a great stream, some people read as “small matters can be quarrelled, great matters must be charged.” Exactly backwards. A great stream is a great matter, a long journey, expanding the surface. In Song, the bigger you make it, the unluckier. Small matters closed with the initial six: that is someone who can read.

I also ask one sentence: do you want to win, or to have a life you can live? Want to win, the upper nine is waiting ahead. Want a life, luck in the middle is enough. Draw Song: stop suing first, settle first, keep evidence. Finish those three and when a great person appears you have something to talk.

I Ching Song further reading

Song comes from fighting over Xu’s food. Wait badly, grab to eat, and you get Song. Compare: I Ching Xu Meaning | Hexagram 5 How to Read: Waiting for the Right Time. After Song there must be a host rising; the next hexagram is Shi 師: I Ching Shi Meaning | Hexagram 7 How to Read: The Army and Leading a Host. If talk has already blocked qi above and below, also read I Ching Pi Meaning | Hexagram 12 How to Read: Getting Through Standstill.

I Ching Song FAQ

Does drawing Song mean I will definitely go to court?

Not necessarily court, but there is definitely contention. A workplace complaint, a customer dispute, a family fight over property, mutual accusations online: all are Song. First treat it as talk and a clash of interests. If you actually receive a lawyer’s letter, then you enter legal process, and then even more you need to see a great person. Do not fight it out yourself in letters.

I have reason. Why still unlucky at the end?

Reason is sincerity. Sincerity can still be blocked. Song is not afraid you have no reason. It is afraid you have reason and fight to the end. Court is the same: the process drags, and the winner can still lose a circle of weight. Luck in the middle is the stopping method people with reason most need to learn.

Beneficial to see a great person. Who is the great person?

Someone who can stop this fight, make a ruling, someone both sides more or less recognize. A judge, a mediator, a shared superior, an elder in the family who can still speak, a professional lawyer. Not someone who helps you vent. Find the wrong great person and Song doubles.

We are already halfway through. I drew the upper nine. What now?

Settle if you can settle. Take the name and money already in hand. Do not chase the last breath. The sash will come and will be stripped. Sign the terms already in hand, stop public statements: that looks more like walking back from unlucky-at-the-end than posting one more “truth.”

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.