困 → 鼎
Hexagram 47: Oppression → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
Line 3
六三 困于石。據于蒺蔾。入于其宮。不見其妻。凶。
Six in the third place means: A man permits himself to be oppressed by stone, And leans on thorns and thistles. He enters the house and does not see his wife. Misfortune.
Line 5
九五 劓刖。困于赤紱。乃徐有說。利用祭祀。
Nine in the fifth place means: His nose and feet are cut off. Oppression at the hands of the man with the purple knee bands. Joy comes softly. It furthers one to make offerings and libations.
Line 6
上六 困于葛藟。于臲卼。曰動悔有悔。征吉。
Six at the top means: He is oppressed by creeping vines. He moves uncertainly and says, "Movement brings remorse. " If one feels remorse over this and makes a start, Good fortune comes.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
踝踵足傷，右指病瘍。失旅後時，利走不來。
Ankle and heel injured, the right finger ulcered and sore. Missing the caravan, arriving too late; profit flees and will not return.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
A lake without water: ankles and heels injured, the right finger afflicted with sores. The traveling party is lost and the timing missed; profit will not come. The verse is a catalogue of physical incapacity compounding logistical failure. Injured feet cannot walk; a diseased hand cannot work. Missing the season means missing the market. Every capacity required for action is damaged or delayed. From Oppression to the Cauldron, fire above wood suggests the transformative power of cooking, refining raw materials into nourishment. But the cauldron requires a functional body to operate: someone must gather wood, tend the fire, carry the vessel. When the body itself is broken, even the Cauldron's transformative promise remains unrealized. Oppression here is physical: the instruments of agency are crippled.
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