鼎 → 未濟
Hexagram 50: The Cauldron → Hexagram 64: Before Completion
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 1 changing line (line 3).
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.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
螟䖝為賊，害我稼穡。盡禾單麥，利无所得。
Grubs and caterpillars become the thieves, destroying our crops and grain. They strip the millet bare, devour the wheat; no profit is to be found.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Fire over wind fills the cauldron; fire hovers above water in Before Completion. Caterpillars and locusts become plagues, devastating grain and millet. The harvest is stripped bare — wheat consumed to the last stalk — and nothing of profit remains. The verse names the farmer's deepest dread: insect swarms that devour an entire season's labor in days. The cauldron depends on grain; without harvest, it stands empty. 'Jin he dan mai' — every stalk of millet gone, every head of wheat consumed — is agricultural annihilation. From The Cauldron to Before Completion, the transformation leaves everything unfinished. Fire above water: energy and substance fail to combine. The cauldron has fire but no food to cook; the field had crops but no defense against the swarm. The work is undone at the very threshold of completion.
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