鼎 → 渙
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 59: Dispersion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 5).
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. "
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
虎飲欲食，見蝟而伏。禹通龍門，避咎除患，元醜以安。
The tiger, hungry and wanting to eat, sees the hedgehog and crouches low. Yu opened the Dragon Gate, averting disaster and removing affliction; thus the primal ugliness finds peace.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; wind sweeps across water in Dispersion. A tiger, hungry and eager to feed, encounters a hedgehog and crouches flat, unable to attack. Then Yu the Great opens the Dragon Gate, averting catastrophe and eliminating danger — the primal chaos is settled into safety. The hedgehog subduing the tiger echoes the 'hedgehog as Gongcao' motif: even the fiercest predator is checked by a small, well-armored creature. Yu's opening of the Dragon Gate — carving the gorge to channel floodwaters — is the foundational act of civilization taming chaos. From The Cauldron to Dispersion, the transformation disperses concentrated danger. Wind over water scatters what had pooled — Yu's engineering genius and the hedgehog's defensive armor both work by redirecting force rather than meeting it head-on.
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