Reading
Judgment
The Caldron. Sublime good fortune. Success.
While the Well treats the social foundation of society, which is like water that serves the wood for nourishment, here the cultural superstructure of society is suggested. Here it is the wood that serves the flame, the spiritual, for nourishment. Everything visible must raise itself and continue into the invisible. Thereby it receives the right consecration and right clarity and roots firmly in the world-connections.
Thus here is shown culture as it has its summit in religion. The caldron serves for sacrificing to God. The highest earthly must be sacrificed to the divine. But the truly divine shows itself not separated from the human. God's highest revelation is in prophets and saints. Their veneration is the true veneration of God. The will of God, which is revealed through them, must be received humbly; then an inner illumination arises and the true world-understanding that leads to great good fortune and success.
Image
Above the wood is fire: the image of the Caldron.
Thus the noble one firms up fate through making the position right.
The wood is the fate of the fire; as long as it is present below, the fire burns above. So it is with human life. In the human too is a fate that lends its life strength. And when one succeeds in assigning the right place to life and fate, one firms up fate, in that life is thus immediately in accord with fate. In these words there are hints about the cultivation of life, as they are handed down from mouth to mouth through the secret teaching of Chinese yoga practice.
Commentary
The whole hexagram is the image of the caldron: below the legs, then the belly, then the ears or handles, and at the top the rings for carrying. The image of the caldron at the same time suggests the thought of nourishment. The caldron, cast of bronze, was the vessel that in the ancestral temple and at festal meals contained the cooked foods. From it they were ladled by the master of the house into the bowl of the guests.
The well too has the by-thought of giving of nourishment, but more for the people. The caldron as vessel of refined culture suggests care and nourishment of capable men, whose care benefited the government of the state (compare the four hexagrams of nourishment, Numbers 5, 27, 48, 50).
This hexagram and the hexagram "Well" are the only two hexagrams in the Book of Changes that represent concrete artificial objects. Yet here too the thought has its abstract side. Below, Sun is wood and wind; above, Li is the flame; it thus represents the flame kindled by wood and wind, which likewise suggests the thought of the preparation of food.
Changing Lines
Line 1
A six at the beginning means:
A caldron with overturned legs.
Favorable to the removal of the stagnant.
One takes a concubine for the sake of her son.
No blame.
Commentary
When one turns the caldron upside down before one puts it into use, it means nothing; on the contrary, the refuse comes out in this way. A concubine is in herself lowly, but because she has a son, she comes to honor.
These two similes express the thought that in times of high culture, as are suggested by the hexagram, anyone of good will can somehow arrive. Even if one is ever so lowly, if one is only ready to cleanse oneself, one will be accepted. One comes into a situation in which one can prove fruitful in accomplishments and as a result finds recognition.
Line 2
A nine in the second place means:
In the caldron is nourishment.
My comrades have envy,
but they cannot do me any harm.
Good fortune!
Commentary
In times of high culture everything depends on really accomplishing something. If one relies only on these real accomplishments, one will perhaps experience envy and ill-will, but this is not dangerous. The more one limits oneself to one's positive accomplishments, the less the enviers can harm one.
Line 3
A nine in the third place means:
The handle of the caldron is changed.
One is hindered in one's walk.
The fat of the pheasant is not eaten.
Once the rain falls, the remorse exhausts itself:
in the end good fortune comes.
Commentary
The handle is the place where the caldron is lifted up. When the handle is changed, the caldron cannot be lifted up and used, and the fine foods that are in it, like the fat of pheasants, regrettably serve no one as nourishment.
Thereby someone is depicted who in a time of high culture finds themself at a place where no one regards or recognizes them. This is for their working a severe hindrance. All their good qualities and spiritual gifts are in this way uselessly consumed. But one must only see to it that one really has inwardly spiritual possession. Then surely the time will finally come when the hindrances resolve and all goes well.
The resolution of tension is here as elsewhere symbolized by the falling of rain.
Line 4
A nine in the fourth place means:
The caldron breaks its legs.
The meal of the prince is spilled,
and his form is spotted.
Misfortune!
Commentary
One has a weighty, responsible task that one is not equal to fulfilling. Since one moreover does not devote oneself to this task with full strength but busies oneself with lowly people, the carrying-through fails. Thereby one brings oneself also into disgrace and shame.
Confucius says of this: "Weak character in honored position, little knowledge and great plans, little strength and heavy responsibility will seldom escape misfortune."
Line 5
A six in the fifth place means:
The caldron has yellow handles, golden carrying rings.
Perseverance furthers.
Commentary
It is a man in a ruling place who in his being is accessible and modest. Through this inner attitude he succeeds in finding strong and capable helpers who complement him and help him in his work. It is important that in this attitude, which requires a lasting inner self-denial, one not let oneself be thrown off, but hold to it.
Line 6
A nine at the top means:
The caldron has rings of jade. Great good fortune!
Nothing that would not further.
Commentary
At the previous line the carrying rings are called golden, to denote their strength. Here they are called of jade. Jade is distinguished in that it unites hardness with a mild gleam. From the standpoint of the man who is accessible to counsel, this counsel works as a strong furtherance. Here the counsel is characterized from the standpoint of the wise man who gives it. In doing so they will be mild and purified like noble jade. In this way the work finds pleasure in the eyes of the divinity, which bestows great good fortune, and becomes pleasing to people, which is why all goes well.