兌 → 鼎
Hexagram 58: The Joyous Lake → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 4 changing lines (lines 1, 3, 5, 6).
Line 1
初九 和兌吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Contented joyousness. Good fortune.
Line 3
六三 來兌凶。
Six in the third place means: Coming joyousness. Misfortune.
Line 5
九五 孚于剝。有厲。
Nine in the fifth place means: Sincerity toward disintegrating influences is dangerous.
Line 6
上六 引兌。
Six at the top means: Seductive joyousness.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
十雉百雛，常與母俱。抱雞搏虎，誰敢難者？
Ten pheasants and a hundred chicks always stay with their mother. Embracing the hen, striking at the tiger: who would dare challenge her?
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Paired lakes meet fire above wind — The Cauldron, where raw materials are transformed into nourishment. Ten pheasant hens with a hundred chicks always stay with their mother. Like a hen grappling with a tiger to protect her brood — who would dare challenge her? The image is fiercely maternal: the weakest creature becomes invincible when defending its young. From The Joyous to The Cauldron, communal joy is refined into the protective authority that sustains civilization. The cauldron transforms raw into cooked, wild into civilized. The mother pheasant who fights the tiger embodies the cauldron's principle: proper positioning and fierce dedication transform weakness into legitimate, unchallengeable power.
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