鼎 → 頤
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 3, 4).
Line 1
初六 鼎顛趾。利出否。得妾以其子。无咎。
Six at the beginning means: A ting with legs upturned. Furthers removal of stagnating stuff. One takes a concubine for the sake of her son. No blame.
Line 2
九二 鼎有實。我仇有疾。不我能即。吉。
Nine in the second place means: There is food in the ting. My comrades are envious, But they cannot harm me. Good fortune.
Line 3
九三 鼎耳革。其行塞。雉膏不食。方雨虧悔。終吉。
Nine in the third place means: The handle of the ting is altered. One is impeded in his way of life. The fat of the pheasant is not eaten. Once rain falls, remorse is spent. Good fortune comes in the end.
Line 4
九四 鼎折足。覆公餗。其形渥。凶。
Nine in the fourth place means: The legs of the ting are broken. The prince's meal is spilled And his person is soiled. Misfortune. A man has a difficult and responsible task to which he is not adequate. Moreover, he does not devote himself to it with all his strength but goes about with inferior people; therefore the execution of the work fails. In this way he also incurs personal opprobrium. Confucius says about this line: "Weak character coupled with honored place, meager knowledge with large plans, limited powers with heavy responsibility, will seldom escape disaster. "
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
東行稻麥，遂至家國。樂土无災，君父何憂？
Traveling east through rice and wheat, arriving at last in the homeland. A happy land free from calamity; what worry need the lord and father bear?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; the mountain rests above thunder in Nourishment. Traveling east one finds rice and wheat, arriving at last in one's homeland. A blessed soil free of calamity — what has the lord and father to worry about? The verse traces a journey from scarcity to abundance, culminating in a return home where grain grows plentifully and disaster is absent. 'East' traditionally meant fertile river plains in the Chinese geographical imagination. From The Cauldron to Nourishment, the transformation is among the most natural in the Yi: the cauldron cooks, and Nourishment's mountain-over-thunder provides the jaw that receives the food. What was refined reaches its proper destination — the mouth that needs feeding, the homeland that needs its people.
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