鼎 → 豐
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 55: Abundance
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 6).
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 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
白馬騮駮，更生不休。富我商人，利得如丘。
White horses, dappled and piebald, ceaselessly breeding. They enrich our merchants; profit accumulates like a hill.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; lightning and thunder crash together in Abundance. White horses, dappled bays — they breed ceaselessly, generation after generation. They enrich the merchant, whose profits pile up like hills. The image is of livestock wealth compounding through natural reproduction: fine horses begetting more fine horses, each generation adding to the herd's value. The 'merchant' (shangren) grows wealthy not through a single transaction but through continuous, self-renewing increase. From The Cauldron to Abundance, the transformation captures the moment when slow accumulation tips into overflowing prosperity. Thunder and fire combine — illumination and movement together create maximum plenty. The cauldron's patient refinement explodes into visible, tangible surplus.
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