小畜 → 鼎
Hexagram 9: Small Taming → Hexagram 50: The Cauldron
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 3 changing lines (lines 1, 4, 5).
Line 1
初九 復自道。何其咎。吉。
Nine at the beginning means: Return to the way. How could there be blame in this? Good fortune.
Line 4
六四 有孚。血去惕出。无咎。
Six in the fourth place means: If you are sincere, blood vanishes and fear gives way. No blame.
Line 5
九五 有孚攣如。富以其鄰。
Nine in the fifth place means: If you are sincere and loyally attached, You are rich in your neighbor.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
下田稷黍，芳華生齒；大雨集降，紛澇滿甕。
In the lowland fields, millet and grain; fragrant blossoms sprout like teeth. Great rains descend in torrents; flooding and filling the jars.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Wind above heaven kindles into fire above wood — the Cauldron, where raw materials are transformed into refined nourishment. Millet and grain grow in the lowland fields, their fragrant blossoms showing through new shoots. Then great rains descend, pouring abundantly until the jars overflow. From Small Taming to the Cauldron, the verse traces the full arc of Ding's transformative process: planting, growth, harvest, and the rain that makes it all possible. The Cauldron takes what earth produces and refines it into offering and sustenance. Here the rain is heaven's contribution — the final ingredient that fills the vessel to overflowing. When gentle cultivation receives heaven's complement, the yield exceeds all measure.
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