鼎 → 旅
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 56: The Wanderer
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 2, 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 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 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
灼火泉原，釣魴山巔。魚不可得。炭不可燃。
Planting rice in sand, hoping for autumn harvest. Brewing tea on snow — the fire won't stay. Climbing a tree seeking fish is always a dream; polishing a brick into a mirror — looking back in vain.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron, yet fire above the mountain in The Wanderer consumes what it cannot settle. The original verse reads: 'Lighting fire at a spring's source, fishing for bream atop a mountain peak — fish cannot be caught, charcoal cannot be lit.' Every action is perfectly mismatched to its environment: fire where water rises, fishing where no water flows. The methods are not wrong in themselves, only catastrophically misapplied. From The Cauldron to The Wanderer, the transformation displaces the cauldron's fire from its proper hearth. Fire on the mountain has no vessel to contain it; the wanderer carries skill but finds no place to exercise it. Competence without context achieves nothing — the cauldron, removed from its base, cannot cook.
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