泰 → 鼎
Hexagram 11: Peace → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 拔茅茹。以其彙。征吉。
Nine at the beginning means: When ribbon grass is pulled up, the sod comes with it. Each according to his kind. Undertakings bring good fortune.
Line 4
六四 翩翩。不富以其鄰。不戒以孚。
Six in the fourth place means: He flutters down, not boasting of his wealth, Together with his neighbor, Guileless and sincere.
Line 6
上六 城復于隍。勿用師。自邑告命。貞吝。
Six at the top means: The wall falls back into the moat. Use no army now. Make your commands known within your own town. Perseverance brings humiliation.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
四亂不安，東西為患；退止我足，毋出國城；乃得全完，賴其生福。
Chaos on four sides, no peace; east and west bring trouble. Withdraw and halt my steps; do not venture beyond the city walls. Thus one stays whole and intact, relying on one's living blessing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Earth above heaven, Peace besieged on all sides. Disorder erupts from every quarter, east and west alike serving as sources of calamity. The response is strategic restraint: withdraw, halt your advance, do not leave the city walls. By staying within the fortified domain, one preserves wholeness and lives to receive blessing. This is the counsel of defensive wisdom — knowing when not to act. From Peace to The Cauldron, fire blazes above wood, and the gentleman rectifies his position to solidify his mandate. The transformation reveals that self-containment is not passivity but the deliberate act of maintaining one's proper station so that one may serve the higher purpose when the time is right.
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