革 → 鼎
Hexagram 49: Revolution → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 鞏用黃牛之革。
Nine at the beginning means: Wrapped in the hide of a yellow cow.
Line 2
六二 巳日乃革之。征吉无咎。
Six in the second place means: When one's own day comes, one may create revolution. Starting brings good fortune. No blame.
Line 5
九五 大人虎變。未占有孚。
Nine in the fifth place means: The great man changes like a tiger. Even before he questions the oracle He is believed.
Line 6
上六 君子豹變。小人革面。征凶。居貞吉。
Six at the top means: The superior man changes like a panther. The inferior man molts in the face. Starting brings misfortune. To remain persevering brings good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
烏孫氏女，深目黑醜。嗜欲不同，過時无耦。
The Wusun woman, deep-eyed and dark of face. Their desires are not the same; the season passes with no match.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire within the lake transforms into fire above wind — the Cauldron, where raw materials are refined into civilized nourishment. The woman of the Wusun clan has deep-set eyes and dark features; her desires differ from the norm, and past her prime she remains unmatched. The Wusun were a Central Asian people on the Silk Road whose physical features — deep-set eyes, prominent noses — struck Han Chinese observers as strikingly foreign. This verse captures cultural misrecognition: what one people considers beautiful, another finds alien. From Revolution to the Cauldron, the transformation suggests that the refining process cannot proceed when the ingredients refuse to blend. Difference without integration yields solitude.
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