同人 → 鼎
Hexagram 13: Fellowship → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5).
Line 1
初九 同人于門。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: Fellowship with men at the gate. No blame.
Line 2
六二 同人于宗。吝。
Six in the second place means: Fellowship with men in the clan. Humiliation.
Line 5
九五 同人先號咷而後笑。大師克相遇。
Nine in the fifth place means: Men bound in fellowship first weep and lament, But afterward they laugh. After great struggles they succeed in meeting.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
兩虎爭鬭，血流漂杵；城郭空墟，蒿藜塞道。
Two tigers fight to the death; blood flows enough to float a pestle. City walls stand empty; mugwort and weeds choke the roads.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and fire form Fellowship, but when two tigers fight, the result is desolation. Blood flows until pestles float — the ancient description of the Battle of Muye's carnage. Cities stand empty as ruins; wormwood and thistles choke the roads. The verse collapses fellowship into its darkest shadow: two powers of equal ferocity destroying not just each other but everything around them. From Fellowship to the Cauldron, the transformation offers the possibility of reconstitution after total destruction. Fire above wood in the Cauldron, the noble man stabilizes his position and crystallizes his mandate. The cauldron cooks raw material into nourishment — but first someone must clear the weeds from the ruined roads and begin again.
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