明夷 → 鼎
Hexagram 36: Darkening of the Light → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 4, 6).
Line 1
初九 明夷于飛。垂其翼。君子于行。三日不食。有攸往。主人有言。
Nine at the beginning means: Darkening of the light during flight. He lowers his wings. The superior man does not eat for three days On his wanderings. But he has somewhere to go. The host has occasion to gossip about him.
Line 2
六二 明夷。夷于左股。用拯馬壯吉。
Six in the second place means: Darkening of the light injures him in the left thigh. He gives aid with the strength of a horse. Good fortune.
Line 4
六四 入于左腹。獲明夷之心。于出門庭。
Six in the fourth place means: He penetrates the left side of the belly. One gets at the very heart of the darkening of the light, And leaves gate and courtyard.
Line 6
上六 不明晦。初登于天。後入于地。
Six at the top means: Not light but darkness. First he climbed up to heaven, Then plunged into the depths of the earth.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
乘風雨會，與飛鳥俱。動舉千里，見我愛母。
Riding wind and rain together; traveling alongside the flying birds. Moving, a thousand miles are crossed; I go to see my beloved mother.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire beneath the earth ascends as fire above wood — the Cauldron, vessel of transformation where raw materials become refined sustenance. 'Riding wind and rain together, soaring with the birds. A single movement covers a thousand li — I behold my beloved mother.' The image is one of ecstatic reunion: carried by storm and wing, the traveler traverses vast distance to reach the person who matters most. The Cauldron's function is precisely this kind of transmutation — base elements refined into something nourishing and sacred. From Darkening of the Light to the Cauldron, suppressed fire finally finds its proper vessel: what was buried now blazes beneath the sacrificial cooking, and the one who endured darkness is reunited with the source of love through a transformative journey.
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