One is confronted with a series of questions to which one must answer. taoscopy.com
The Cauldron50
Transformation and nourishment lead to inner and outer change. Embrace renewal by discarding the old and refining the new.
↓ Line 1
The beginning of a process of transformation. It is beneficial to clear away the old to make way for the new.
↓ Line 2
You have something valuable to offer. Others may be envious, but they cannot affect your success.
↓ Line 5
A time of stability and prosperity. Continued effort will bring further success.
↓ Fellowship13
Unity through shared purpose and community effort.
50 The Cauldron
Other titles: The Cauldron, The Vessel, Rejuvenation, Cosmic Order, The Alchemical Vessel, "A complete transformation of a person or circumstance." -- D.F. Hook
Judgment
Legge: The Sacrificial Vessel means great progress and success.
Wilhelm/Baynes:The Cauldron. Supreme good fortune. Success.
Blofeld: A Sacrificial Vessel -- supreme success!
Liu:The Cauldron. Great good fortune. Success.
Ritsema/Karcher:The Vessel, Spring significant. Growing. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of the imaginative capacity of a sacred vessel. It emphasizes that securing and imaginatively transforming the material at hand is the adequate way to handle it. To be in accord with the time, you are told to: hold and transform things in the vessel!]
Shaughnessy:The Cauldron: Prime auspiciousness; receipt.
Cleary (1): The cauldron is basically good; it is developmental.
Cleary (2): The Cauldron is very auspiciously developmental.
Wu: The Cauldron indicates great auspiciousness and pervasiveness.
The Image
Legge: Wood under a fire -- the image of a Sacrificial Vessel. The superior man maintains his correctness in every situation to secure the appointment of heaven.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Fire over wood: the image of The Cauldron. Thus the superior man consolidates his fate by making his position correct.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes fire upon wood. The Superior Man, taking his stance as righteousness requires, adheres firmly to heaven's decrees.
Liu: Fire above wood symbolizes the Caldron. The superior man makes his destiny firm with a correct position.
Ritsema/Karcher: Above wood possessing fire. The Vessel. A chun tzu uses correcting the situation to solidify fate.
Cleary (1): There is fire on top of wood; a cauldron. Thus do superior people stabilize life in the proper position.
Cleary (2): Fire over wood -- The Cauldron . Leaders stabilize their mandate by correcting their position.
Wu: There is fire on wood; this is The Cauldron . Thus the jun zi rectifies his position and consecrates the mandate.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The image of the Sacrificial Vessel shows us wood entering a fire, which suggests the idea of cooking. The sages cooked their sacrifices to God and nourished their able ministers with feasts. We have the trigrams of Flexible Obedience and Quick Intelligence, with the magnetic line advanced to the ruler's place and responded to by her dynamic correlate below. All these things give the auspice of successful progress.
Legge: The written Chinese character for Sacrificial Vessel represents a cauldron with three feet and two "ears" used for cooking and preparing food for both the table and the altar. The hexagram pictures this vessel -- the divided first line represents the feet, the three undivided lines above represent the body, the divided fifth line shows the ears (or carrying rings), and the top line is the handle by which the container is carried or suspended from a hook.
The lesson of the hexagram is that the nourishing of men of talent and virtue intimates great progress and success. The K'ang-hsi editors point out that the distinction between hexagram number forty-eight, The Well, and this one is the difference between the nourishment of the people in general and the specific nourishing of worthy men. They add that the reality of sacrifice is nourishing in this regard.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: You are the Sacrificial Vessel.
The Superior Man holds to the principles of the Work to attain transcendence.
The usual name for this hexagram is The Cauldron -- specifically, a type of food-containing vessel which was used in ancient China for religious sacrifices. I prefer Blofeld’s title of the Sacrificial Vessel as more evocative of the ideas presented in the figure.
When the forty-ninth hexagram of Transformation is turned upside down, it becomes the fiftieth hexagram of the Sacrificial Vessel, thus giving us some valuable insights into the nuances of meaning in each of the figures. The combined ideas of transformation and a cauldron used for sacrifices remind us of the alchemical vessel or retort which "cooked" its contents and transformed them into a higher state of matter -- turned lead into gold in the popular conception. Of course, the true esoteric purpose of the alchemist was psychological, not physical.
The vessel of the alchemists, like the circle of the psyche and the mandala, must be closed if the transformation process is to proceed satisfactorily. For the alchemists, the process took place in the material substances collected in the retort. For us, this is a symbol representing a similar process taking place within the psyche. Thus it is said that a wall must be securely built about the psyche before the reconciliation of the opposites can take place within it, and before the new center of the individual can be created. ... For if anything is lost the process is nullified and the final product will be incomplete, imperfect. So long, for instance, as the individual continues to project his deficiencies, or his values, upon circumstances or upon another, he does not have an impervious vessel ... Thus the contents essentially involved in the transformation are seen to be the irrational, instinctual, not yet human factors of the psyche, the nonego. The human and civilized factors, those subject to the will, make up the wall of the vessel. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
Now an ancient Chinese cauldron used to contain food intended for religious sacrifices is not the same thing as a hermetically sealed alchemical retort made to withstand extreme pressures, but symbolically they are identical images. The ego sacrifices its autonomy for the good of the Work in the same way that the alchemist devotes his entire life to the transformation of base metal into gold -- i.e., to transform his psyche by following the extreme discipline of the Work. Thomas Cleary’s Taoist I-Ching explicitly tells us that this is the meaning intended here:
The work of refinement is the means by which to sublimate earthly energy and stabilize celestial energy, causing the raw to ripen and the old to be renewed, whereby it is possible to illumine the mind and to solidify life. Therefore the cauldron is basically good and it has a developmental path. The basis is the potential of everlasting life of goodness; the cooking of the great medicine in the cauldron is the firing of this living potential to make it incorruptible and permanent. But in this path there is process and procedure; even the slightest deviation and the gold elixir will not form. Therefore people must first thoroughly investigate the true principle. Liu I-ming
SUGGESTIONS FOR MEDITATION
In his commentary Legge mentions that the Chinese see an analogy between this figure and hexagram number forty-eight, The Well. Compare the two figures, noting the similarities between the first, third, fifth and sixth lines. The component trigrams of the Sacrificial Vessel appear in reverse sequence in hexagram number thirty-seven, Family. What other similarities are there in the two figures? How is the idea of a family analogous to the idea of a sacrificial vessel?
Line 1
Legge: The first line, magnetic, shows the cauldron overthrown and its feet turned up. But there will be advantage in getting rid of what was bad in it. Or it shows us the concubine whose position is improved by means of her son. There will be no error.
Wilhelm/Baynes: A cauldron with legs upturned. Furthers removal of stagnating stuff. One takes a concubine for the sake of her son. No blame.
Blofeld: To rid it of decaying remnants of meat, the vessel is turned upside down. [Some actions, though highly improper in themselves, may be properly performed if circumstances so require; a merely ritualistic conception of right and wrong is not desirable.] It is not shameful to take a concubine for the sake of bearing sons. [This is added as an example, immediately acceptable to a traditionally minded Chinese of something improper in itself which becomes proper when the motive is acceptable.]
Liu: A cauldron overturned by its legs -- it is beneficial to clean out the stagnating matter. One takes a concubine to get a son. No blame.
Ritsema/Karcher:The Vessel: toppling the foot. Harvesting: issuing-forth-from obstruction. Acquiring a concubine, using one's sonhood. Without fault.
Shaughnessy: The cauldron's upturned legs; beneficial to expel the bad; getting a consort together with her son; there is no trouble.
Cleary (1): When the cauldron overturns on its base, it is beneficial to eject what is wrong. Getting a concubine, because of her child she is not faulted.
Wu: The cauldron tips over and conveniently spills its stale food, like a man taking a secondary wife because of her son. There will be no error.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The cauldron is emptied -- this is not incorrect. There will be advantage in getting rid of what was bad so that the subject of the line will thereby follow the more noble subject of line four. Wilhelm/Baynes: This is still not wrong. To follow the man of worth. Blofeld: There is nothing improper about up-ending a sacrificial vessel to rid it of decaying matter. Such actions are necessary in the pursuit of what is noble. Ritsema/Karcher: Not-yet rebelling indeed. Using adhering-to valuing indeed. Cleary (2): That is not bad. To go along with what is valuable. Wu: There is nothing to worry about. The outlook is after prominence.
Legge: Line one is magnetic, and little can be expected from her, but she has a proper correlate in the dynamic fourth line. The overthrow of the cauldron, causing its feet to be turned upward towards the fourth place empties it of what was bad in it. This is deemed fortunate, because it thereby hastens the cooperation between the two lines. A similar idea is that a concubine is less honorable than a wife --like the overthrown cauldron. But if she has a son, while the wife has none, he will be his father's heir, and the concubine-mother will share in the honor of his position.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: At the outset, the evil is being discarded. This opens up opportunities for renewal, no matter how lowly a position the man may temporarily occupy.
Wing: To attain a goal that is worthy in itself, you may need to use means that are considered unorthodox. If this goal has been a long-term objective, you may have to begin again, using entirely new methods. This is not a mistake. You can succeed no matter how inexperienced you are.
Editor: An alchemical vessel is a metaphor for the psyche undergoing the transformation of the Work. To rid the vessel of what is "bad" (Wilhelm calls it "stagnating stuff") is to rid oneself of limiting beliefs, negative emotions or whatever harmful element may be suggested by the matter at hand. After years of work, the testing process becomes increasingly refined -- one goes through long periods of stress with perfect equanimity, and begins to take pride in one's strength of will. At about that point, something will happen to evoke an emotional response, and one becomes suddenly aware that the refining process is not complete until all of the scum comes to the top and is eliminated from the psyche. The symbolism of the concubine suggests a rather humble or simple emotional component, union with which produces a new and promising synthesis.
When this part of the work has been accomplished it is as if the individual had built a psychic container, and this must be done to the very best of his ability, or it may go to pieces when the strains and stresses of the transformation process begin. For there will still remain certain things, and these usually the very darkest, that will come to light when he explores the unconscious ... These blackest shadows, that the alchemists called the state of nigredo, will probably prove to be connected with the unadapted emotions representing the nonpersonal part of the psyche, and it is most painful to realize that they actually exist within oneself. M.E. Harding -- Psychic Energy
A. After ridding oneself of limiting beliefs, a conscious connection with basic principles brings forth new and valuable insights.
B. Expel dross and embrace simplicity.
C. The simplest, least complicated solution is the best one.
D. An image of dealing with unconscious material -- confronting one's hidden issues.
Line 2
Legge: The second line, dynamic, shows the cauldron with the things to be cooked in it. If he can say, "My enemy dislikes me, but he cannot approach me," there will be good fortune.
Wilhelm/Baynes: There is food in the cauldron. My comrades are envious, but they cannot harm me. Good fortune.
Blofeld: The Ting possesses solidity. My enemies are in difficulty and there is nothing they can do to me -- good fortune!
Liu: The cauldron is filled with food. My associates are jealous, but they cannot harm me. Good fortune. [Even though a person profits from his business or performs his work carefully and well, he should still beware lest others harm or disturb him.]
Ritsema/Karcher: The Vessel possesses substance. My companion possesses affliction. Not me able to approach. Significant.
Shaughnessy: The cauldron has substance: my enemy has an illness; it is not able to approach me; auspicious.
Cleary (1): The cauldron is filled. One’s enemy is jealous, but cannot get at one; this is lucky.
Cleary (2): The cauldron has content. My enemy is afflicted, but luckily cannot get to me.
Wu: The cauldron is full. My associates have ill feelings about me, but they cannot do anything to me. This is auspicious.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: Let the subject of the line be careful where he goes. My enemy dislikes me, but there will in the end be no fault to which he can point. Wilhelm/
Baynes: Be cautious about where you go. This brings no blame in the end. Blofeld: The first sentence indicates a need for caution. "My enemies are in trouble" indicates that I shall remain blameless to the end. Ritsema/Karcher: Considering places it indeed. Completing without surpassing indeed. Cleary (2): Being careful about where one goes. After all there is no resentment. Wu: Be mindful of where to go. There will be no resentment in the end.
Legge: The enemy is the first line which solicits. Line two is able to resist the solicitation, and the auspice is favorable.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man achieves great success, thereby incurring the envy of others. No harm will come to him, since he is not distracted from his purpose.
Wing: You may feel a need to stand apart from your fellow man to achieve a significant aim. Such a stance will invite envy, but this will not create a problem for you. Good fortune is indicated.
Editor: If the Sacrificial Vessel is seen as an analogue of the psyche, it is easy to see this line as a commentary on not allowing inner forces (appetites, passions, emotions, etc.) to overcome the ego's control of the Work. Note that the Wilhelm, Blofeld and Liu translations are not conditional like Legge's: "If he can say..." Liu's note is derived from the Confucian commentary, which seems unduly grave: note that the original line is not overtly cautionary. Generally, you are protected despite any perceived threats.
The Oracles urge men to devote themselves to things divine, and not to give way to the promptings of the irrational soul, for, to such as fail herein, it is significantly said, "Thy vessel the beasts of the earth shall inhabit." W.W. Westcott -- The Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster
A. The situation is favorable, but you must be on guard to maintain it.
B. Divisive forces covet that which is under your control, but cannot harm you if you are careful.
C. Your idea has merit. (A cauldron with food in it.) Develop it carefully and don't get carried away. (Protect it from the enemies of doubt, over-enthusiasm, etc.)
Line 5
Legge: The fifth line, magnetic, shows the cauldron with yellow ears and rings of metal in them. There will be advantage in being firm and correct.
Wilhelm/Baynes: The cauldron has yellow handles, golden carrying rings. Perseverance furthers.
Blofeld: The Ting has yellow handles with golden rings attached -- righteous persistence brings reward! [The faults described in the last two notes have now been put right; the position is even better than before they were committed.]
Liu: The cauldron has yellow handles and golden carrying rings. Continuing brings advantage. [A time of benefit.]
Ritsema/Karcher: The Vessel: yellow ears, metallic rings. Harvesting Trial.
Shaughnessy: The cauldron's yellow ears and metal bar; beneficial to determine.
Cleary (1): The cauldron has yellow hooks with a gold handle. It is beneficial to be single-minded.
Cleary (2): ... It is beneficial to be correct.
Wu: The cauldron’s ears are yellow and its carrying pole is covered with gold. It is advantageous to be persevering.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: The central position of the line is taken as a proof of the solid virtue of its subject. Wilhelm/Baynes: The yellow handles of the cauldron are central, in order to receive what is real. Blofeld: The central position of this line in the upper trigram implies solid worth. Ritsema/Karcher: Centering uses activating substance indeed. Cleary (2): The knobs of the cauldron are filled through the center. Wu: What it holds is substantial.
Legge:"Line five," says the Daily Lecture, "praises the ruler as condescending to the worthy with his humble virtue." Yellow has occurred repeatedly as a "correct color," and here the yellow ears and strong rings of metal are intended to intensify our appreciation of the occupant of line five. As the line is magnetic, a caution is added about being firm and correct.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Siu: The man is modest and approachable. He thereby attracts associates, who can provide able help and advice.
Wing: If he is humble and receptive, a person in a position of authority will make further progress in the development of his character. He will attain insights and wisdom. He should continue developing his expanding awareness.
Editor: The Wilhelm version of the Confucian commentary gives us a more accessible clue as to the meaning of this line: "...In order to receive what is real." The essential idea is that of the ruler's receptivity to a higher power. Openness to advice is the basic gestalt -- "ears" are receptive to messages, and "handles" suggest grasp or comprehension. Metal is often symbolic of the mental qualities, and yellow metal, rendered as "gold" in most translations of this line, suggests the highest form of mentality -- wisdom, divine intelligence, cosmic truth, etc. Gold also often symbolizes intuition, the highest form of comprehension.
The attitude of the serious adept was genuinely religious, and the most important of the philosophical alchemists confessed in their writings that the religious side of their "art" was the focus of their interest and endeavors -- above all their inner experiences during the opus. A. Jaffe -- The Myth of Meaning
A. The images suggests an open receptivity to harmonious influences: Go to center and listen to your inner voice.
13 Fellowship
Other titles: Fellowship with Men, The Symbol of Companionship, Lovers, Beloved Friends, Like-minded persons, Concording People, Gathering Men, Sameness with People, Universal Brotherhood, Fellowship, Community, United, Human Association, Union of Men, Integration of Forces, Minor Synthesis, Cliques, Concordance, To Be In Accord With, Confirmation
Judgment
Legge: Union of Forces appears in the remote districts of the country, indicating progress and success. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream. It will be advantageous to maintain the firm correctness of the superior man.
Wilhelm/Baynes:Fellowship with Men in the open. Success. It furthers one to cross the great water. The perseverance of the superior man furthers.
Blofeld:Lovers (friends) in the open -- success! It is advantageous to cross the great river (or sea). [To make any kind of journey.] The Superior Man will benefit if he does not slacken his righteous persistence.
Liu: Fellowship of men in the open (countryside). Success. It benefits one to cross the great water. It benefits the superior man to continue his task.
Ritsema/Karcher: Concording People , tending-towards the countryside. Growing. Harvesting: wading the Great River. Harvesting: chun tzu, Trial. [This hexagram describes your situation in terms of sharing a goal with others. It emphasizes that finding ways to cooperate with and harmonize people's efforts is the adequate way to handle it...]
Shaughnessy: Gathering men in the wilds; receipt; beneficial to ford the great river; beneficial for the gentleman to determine.
Cleary (1):Sameness with people in the wilderness is developmental. It is beneficial to cross great rivers. It is beneficial for a superior person to be upright.
Cleary (1): … Beneficial for a leader to be correct.
Wu: Fellowship in the open is pervasive, etc. … It will be advantageous to the jun zi who perseveres.
The Image
Legge: The images of heaven and fire form Union of Forces. The superior man, in accordance with this, distinguishes things according to their kinds and classes.
Wilhelm/Baynes: Heaven together with fire: the image of Fellowship with Men. Thus the superior man organizes the clans and makes distinctions between things.
Blofeld: This hexagram symbolizes heaven (the sun) and fire representing a pair of lovers. The Superior Man treats everything in a manner proper to his kind. [an analogy (based on the component trigrams) between the sun and fire, which to some extent are of a kind.]
Liu: Fire goes up to heaven, symbolizing Fellowship with Men. The superior man organizes his kinship group (party), and sorts them out.
Ritsema/Karcher: Heaven associating-with fire. Concording People. A chun tzu uses sorting the clans to mark-off the beings.
Cleary (1): Heaven with fire, sameness with others; superior people distinguish things in terms of categories and groups.
Cleary (2): … Leaders distinguish beings in terms of classes and families.
Wu: Heaven above and fire below form Fellowship. The jun zi distinguishes things by their kinds.
COMMENTARY
Confucius/Legge: In Union of Forces the magnetic line has the central place of influence and responds to her correlate line in the upper trigram of Strength. The hexagram takes its name from the upper trigram of Strength lending its power to the lower trigram of Clarity and Intelligence. This represents the correct course of the superior man. It is only the superior man who can comprehend and affect the minds of all under the sky.
Legge: Union of Forces describes a condition which is the opposite of the preceding hexagram of Divorcement. What was there distress and obstruction is here a union of forces. But it must be based entirely on the good of the whole, without any taint of selfishness.
The dynamic line correctly in the fifth place occupies the most important position, and has for his correlate the magnetic second line, also in her correct place. The one female line is naturally sought after by all the male lines. The editors of the K'ang-hsi edition would make the second line respond to all of the lines of the upper trigram, as being more agreeable to the idea of union.
The upper trigram is that of Heaven, the lower is of Fire, whose tendency is to mount upwards. This image suggests the fire ascending, blazing to the sky and uniting with it. All these ideas are in harmony with the notion of union, but it must be free of all factionalism, and this is indicated by its being in the remote districts of the country, where people are unsophisticated and free from the corrupting effects of urban intrigue. Although a union from such motives can cope with the greatest difficulties, yet a word of caution is added.
NOTES AND PARAPHRASES
Judgment: Connections are being made. If you are able to maintain your will, it is advisable to push for a synthesis .
The Superior Man differentiates and prioritizes; he sorts and evaluates his options.
This is another image of union -- not the supreme union of hexagram number eleven, Harmony, but a subordinate union of forces within the psyche which builds toward an eventual grand alliance. The component trigrams show the union of Strength and Clarity, suggesting that a certain level of mental comprehension is involved. To receive the hexagram without changing lines is often a confirmation of your particular thought -- saying, in effect: "You've made the connection."
Comprehension (synthesis) involves making distinctions (analysis) -- a paradoxical process in which one must divide before one can (re)unite. (This is the solve et coagula of alchemy.) Thus we see the superior man in the Image creating categories to bring about union -- this is discrimination directed toward reclassification or rectification. For example, a heterogeneous mixture of vegetable and flower seeds is made meaningful when one sorts them into their separate categories. The disparate elements then become coherently "united" -- in I Chingterms, each line obtains its proper correlate as in Hexagram number 63.
(Dialectic) alternates between synthesis and analysis until it has gone through the entire domain of the intelligible and has arrived at the principle. Stopping there, for it is only there that it can stop, no longer busying itself with a multitude of objects since it has arrived at unity, it contemplates. Plotinus -- The Enneads
The Chinese name of this hexagram includes the word Jen, which is apparently a difficult concept, since many philosophers have spent a good deal of energy in trying to define it:
Jen has been variously translated as benevolence, perfect virtue, goodness, human-heartedness, love, altruism, etc. None of these expresses all the meanings of the term. It means a particular virtue, benevolence, and also the general virtue, the basis of all goodness. ...Neo-Confucianists interpreted it as impartiality, the character of production and reproduction, consciousness, seeds that generate, the will to grow, one who forms one body with Heaven and Earth, or "the character of love and the principle of mind." In modern times, it has even been equated with ether and electricity... Wing-Tsit Chan -- A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy
Chu Hsi defines Jen as the "character of the mind" (psyche) and "the principle of love" (union). Interpreted in this way we are enabled to apprehend the essence of the word "love," which is union -- becoming one with its object. I have chosen the title of Union of Forces to emphasize intra-psychic dynamics which are not immediately obvious in Wilhelm's title of Fellowship with Men. For example in dealing with questions pertaining to the Work, the concept of "ego states" or "subpersonalities" is often relevant to the symbolism of this hexagram:
The human self has been described here as composed of different ego states separated by boundaries. It has been likened to the structure of political principalities. From clinical observation we find that ego states can cooperate for mutual well-being, like allied nations against a common enemy. An ego state may become split, like East and West Germany, or fracture into many segments, like the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Ego states may become cognitively dissonant and hostile to each other, like Syria and Israel. In fact, the behavior of ego states within an individual is not unlike that between individuals, and between those groups of individuals called countries. Why should the behavior of human "stuff" not be substantially similar at all levels of its organizations? ...The evidence of self division into ego states is significant, and an equally tenable hypothesis might be that the states and boundaries of political entities have been imposed by men on each other because these represent an externalization of the internal divisions in their own selves. J.G. Watkins -- The Therapeutic Self
This hexagram's "shadow side" reveals circumstances preventing the union of entities or forces, more than those conditions promoting fruitful affiliation. Note that only the first and fifth lines of the figure depict a positive synthesis; the first one is minor, and in the case of line 5, union is attained only after much struggle. Line 2 reveals a clique or faction situation opposed to the general welfare, and lines 3 and 4 are images of recalcitrant forces unable to either join or attack the alliance. The sixth line depicts a partial union (probably the most common outcome in general experience), which the Confucian commentary nevertheless minimizes. Out of six lines then, only two describe anything like complete fellowship. I have received this hexagram without changing lines when the context of the question revealed an “incestuous,” clique-type situation, so not all "fellowship" or Union of Forcesis necessarily an ideal configuration.