鼎 → 困
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 47: Oppression
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 5, 6).
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
登高望家，役事未休。王政靡盬，不得逍遙。
Standing on the city wall gazing toward home — a thousand mountains block the way to Hengyang. Bricks and mud in hand, carrying without end — what year, what month, will the pack be set down?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron, but the lake drains dry above water in Oppression. The original verse reads: 'Climbing high to gaze homeward, royal duties never cease. The king's governance grinds without rest — one cannot wander free.' This echoes the Shijing soldiers' lament 'He Cao Bu Huang': endless conscription, no leave to return home, the laborer's body owned by the state. The traveler stands on a height, looking toward a home he cannot reach, burdened by obligations that know no end. From The Cauldron to Oppression, the cauldron's nourishing fire is replaced by a drained lake — resources exhausted, the well dry. The laborer cooks for others but never eats; service without respite becomes its own prison.
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