Opposition
The Parting of Wills
Sharing a place but not a direction: only small matters go through, and mistrust can invent the rest.
Opposition sets Li, fire, over Dui, the lake. Fire moves upward and the water of the lake moves downward, so the two halves of the figure turn away from one another although they stand together. The commentary reads the trigrams as the middle and the youngest daughter, who live in the same house but whose wills do not go in the same direction, and the figure is the reverse of the Family that precedes it in the sequence. The Judgment allows good fortune in small matters only: nothing large can be built while the parties are set apart, though ordinary business goes on. The Image has the superior man keep his own individuality amid all fellowship.
Light
Signifies necessary difference, individuality preserved inside a group, the productive tension of opposites, and small matters that can still be carried through while agreement is out of reach.
Shadow
Can indicate estrangement, mistrust that reads harmless acts as hostile, factions within a household, and quarrels grown from misunderstanding rather than from any real conflict of interest.
