鼎 → 損
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 41: Decrease
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 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 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
左輔右弼，金玉滿櫃。常盈不亡，富于敖倉。
With the left minister and the right counselor, gold and jade fill the coffers. Ever brimming, never diminished; wealthier than the granary of Ao.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; the mountain rises above the lake in Decrease. Aides flank the throne on left and right, and coffers overflow with gold and jade. Wealth endures without loss, rivaling the legendary Ao Granary. The Ao Granary was the Qin and Han empire's greatest storehouse, strategically vital during the Chu-Han wars — whoever held it controlled the food supply and thus the realm. The verse presents maximum material abundance: political support, treasury full, stores inexhaustible. From The Cauldron to Decrease, the transformation paradox deepens. True decrease means restraining desire, yet here the treasury brims. The cauldron produces surplus that Decrease's discipline must govern — abundance without self-restraint is the very condition Decrease exists to correct.
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