損 → 鼎
Hexagram 41: Decrease → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 4).
Line 1
初九 已事遄往。无咎。酌損之。
Nine at the beginning means: Going quickly when one's tasks are finished Is without blame. But one must reflect on how much one may decrease others.
Line 3
六三 三人行。則損一人。一人行。則得其友。
Six in the third place means: When three people journey together, Their number decreases by one. When one man journeys alone, He finds a companion.
Line 4
六四 損其疾。使遄有喜。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: If a man deceases his faults, It makes the other hasten to come and rejoice. No blame.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
一指食肉，口无所得。舌嚵於腹。
One finger points at the meat; the mouth obtains nothing. The tongue craves but the belly stays empty.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain above lake transforms into fire above wind — the Cauldron, vessel of sacred transformation. One finger points at meat, but the mouth receives nothing. The tongue craves what the belly lacks. The verse is a study in tantalization: sustenance is visible, proximate, yet unreachable. A single finger gestures toward the feast but cannot convey it to the mouth. From Decrease to the Cauldron, the mountain becomes fire that should cook and transform raw material into nourishment. The Cauldron's promise is alchemical change — base ingredients refined into something higher. But here the transformation stalls: the cauldron is present, the food is present, yet the mechanism of transfer fails. Decrease has removed the means of conveyance; the gap between seeing and eating becomes unbridgeable.
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