巽 → 鼎
Hexagram 57: The Gentle Wind → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 4, 5).
Line 4
六四 悔亡。田獲三品。
Six in the fourth place means: Remorse vanishes. During the hunt Three kinds of game are caught.
Line 5
九五 貞吉悔亡。无不利。无初有終。先庚三日。後庚三日。吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: Perseverance brings good fortune. Remorse vanishes. Nothing that does not further. No beginning, but an end. Before the change, three days. After the change, three days. Good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
矢石所射，襄公㾐劇。吳子巢門，傷病不治。
Struck by arrow and stone; Lord Xiang suffers grievously. The lord of Wu at Chao Gate; wounded beyond healing.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind upon wind transforms into fire over wind: the Gentle becomes The Cauldron. Arrow and stone strike home; Duke Xiang's wound worsens grievously. The lord of Wu falls at the Chao gate, his injury beyond cure. The verse pairs two rulers fatally wounded in battle. Duke Xiang of Song was struck in the thigh at the Battle of the Hong River in 638 BC, insisting on chivalric conduct against Chu while his army was routed. He died the following year. King Helu of Wu was wounded in the toe at the Battle of Zuili in 496 BC against Yue and died of the injury on the retreat. From The Gentle to The Cauldron, fire above wind should refine and transform. But these lords could not be refined by their wounds — only destroyed. The cauldron cracks under what it cannot contain.
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