噬嗑 → 鼎
Hexagram 21: Biting Through → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3).
Line 1
初九 履校滅趾。无咎。
Nine at the beginning means: His feet are fastened in the stocks, So that his toes disappear. No blame.
Line 2
六二 噬膚滅鼻。无咎。
Six in the second place means: Bites through tender meat, So that his nose disappears. No blame.
Line 3
六三 噬腊肉。遇毒。小吝。无咎。
Six in the third place means: Bites on old dried meat And strikes on something poisonous. Slight humiliation. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
三足孤烏，靈明為御；司過罰惡，自殘其家。毀敗為憂。
A three-legged lone crow, the divine spirit's charioteer; overseeing transgressions, punishing evil -- it destroys its own house. Ruin and decay bring sorrow.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire and thunder enforce the law, and here divine justice turns upon its own agent. The three-legged crow — the sun-bird dwelling inside the sun — serves as the vehicle of celestial clarity. It administers punishment and penalizes the wicked, but in doing so, it destroys its own household. The enforcer's zeal consumes itself. The three-legged crow (三足烏) is the mythological bird within the sun, associated with illumination and cosmic oversight. 'Presiding over faults and punishing evil' echoes the judicial function of hexagram 21 itself. From Biting Through to The Cauldron, fire blazes above wood to transform raw material into civilized sustenance. Yet the verse warns that the cauldron's cook who pursues purity too ruthlessly will ruin the very house the cooking was meant to nourish.
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