師 → 鼎
Hexagram 7: The Army → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 3, 4, 6).
Line 3
六三 師或輿尸。凶。
Six in the third place means: Perchance the army carries corpses in the wagon. Misfortune.
Line 4
六四 師左次。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: The army retreats. No blame.
Line 6
上六 大君有命。開國承家。小人勿用。
Six at the top means: The great prince issues commands, Founds states, vests families with fiefs. Inferior people should not be employed.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
子畏於匡，厄困陳蔡。德行不危，竟脫厄害。
The Master was imperiled at Kuang; beset in Chen and Cai. His virtuous conduct was not endangered; in the end he escaped the peril.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Water hidden within the earth protects the sage even in mortal danger. Confucius was besieged at Kuang — mistaken for the villain Yang Hu by hostile villagers — and stranded between the states of Chen and Cai, where provisions ran out for seven days. Yet his moral conduct never wavered, and in the end he escaped unharmed from all these perils. The verse directly names two of Confucius's most famous ordeals: at Kuang he declared 'Heaven has not yet destroyed this culture,' and between Chen and Cai he kept playing his zither while disciples despaired. From The Army to The Cauldron, fire above wind transforms raw material into civilized nourishment. The sage's integrity is the fire that refines adversity into lasting teaching.
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