鼎 → 萃
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 45: Gathering Together
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 2, 3, 5, 6).
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 5
六五 鼎黃耳金鉉。利貞。
Six in the fifth place means: The ting has yellow handles, golden carrying rings. Perseverance furthers.
Line 6
上九 鼎玉鉉。大吉。无不利。
Nine at the top means: The ting has rings of jade. Great good fortune. Nothing that would not act to further.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
西逢王母，慈我九子。相對歡喜，王孫萬戶，家蒙福祉。
Traveling west, she meets the Queen Mother, who blesses her nine children. They face each other in delight; the royal grandson's ten thousand households, the whole family bathed in blessings.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; the lake gathers upon the earth in Gathering. Traveling west, one meets the Queen Mother of the West, who blesses nine children with her kindness. They face each other in joy — ten thousand households for the royal descendants, the family mantled in blessing. The Queen Mother of the West, dwelling on Mount Kunlun above the Weak Water, governs immortality and cosmic blessing. Her meeting with a traveler heading west echoes King Mu of Zhou's legendary pilgrimage. Nine children blessed by the supreme goddess signals generational abundance. From The Cauldron to Gathering, the transformation gathers all blessings into one place. The lake above the earth pools what heaven has granted — the cauldron's offering ascends westward and returns as divine maternal grace, concentrating fortune where family converges.
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