鼎 → 晉
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 35: Progress
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 2, 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
耳闕道衰，所為不成，求事匪得。
Hearing fails, the Way declines; all that is undertaken comes to nothing. What is sought cannot be obtained.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron, but fire above earth in Progress cannot advance. The ear fails and the Way declines — nothing attempted succeeds, nothing sought is obtained. 'Ear failing' suggests deafness to counsel or the breakdown of communication: when one can no longer hear the truth, the path collapses. The verse is starkly minimal — three phrases of pure failure without mitigation or redemption. From The Cauldron to Progress, the irony is sharp. Progress should mean the sun rising above the earth, illuminating the world with advancing clarity. But here the cauldron's fire, meant to refine wisdom, produces only a figure who cannot hear. Advancement without perception is no advancement at all — light that falls on closed eyes.
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