訟 → 鼎
Hexagram 6: Conflict → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 3, 5).
Line 3
六三 食舊德。貞。厲終吉。或從王事。无成。
Six in the third place means: To nourish oneself on ancient virtue induces perseverance. Danger. In the end, good fortune comes. If by chance you are in the service of a king, Seek not works.
Line 5
九五 訟。元吉。
Nine in the fifth place means: To contend before him Brings supreme good fortune.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
虎聚摩牙，人待豚豬。往必傷亡，宜利止居。
Tigers gather, grinding their teeth; men wait like pigs. Going forth means certain death; better to stay and hold still.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Heaven and water oppose, and tigers gather, grinding their fangs — while humans wait with pigs and swine, the bait or the offering. To go forward is certain injury; better to stay put. The verse is a stark warning: the predators are assembling, and what appears to be an opportunity is a trap. From Conflict to The Cauldron, fire blazes above wood, refining and transforming. The Cauldron's image is civilization's highest achievement — cooking raw materials into nourishment, transforming base into refined. Yet the verse inverts this: the humans with their livestock are not the cooks but the cooked, not the refiners but the raw material. When tigers rule the field, approaching the Cauldron means becoming its contents.
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