鼎 → 訟
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 6: Conflict
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 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 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
三推相逐，蠅墜釜中。灌沸淹殪，與母長決。
Thrice pushed, one after another; a fly falls into the cauldron. Scalded in the boiling water, drowned and slain; parted from mother forever.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind heats the cauldron, but heaven and water pull in opposite directions, breeding conflict. Three creatures chase one another until a fly tumbles into the boiling pot — scalded and drowned, it perishes, parted forever from its mother. The cauldron, meant for sacred nourishment, becomes an instrument of accidental destruction. The boiling broth that should sustain life instead consumes the helpless intruder. 'Parting forever from mother' invokes the deepest severance: not just death, but the rupture of the primal bond. From The Cauldron to Conflict, the transformation exposes how the very vessel of civilization can become lethal when its contents rage unchecked. What nourishes can also destroy — the same fire that cooks the offering boils the unwary alive.
The Six Lines app includes all 4,096 Yilin verses, each with original ink brush artwork and full commentary. Download on the App Store