Takashima & the Yilin · A short read
A carrying bar for a fine cauldron
A merchant came to ask Takashima about his prospects. The cast gave Ding, the Cauldron, with its fifth line changing. Takashima began with the vessel: it had handles, and someone would have to pass a bar through them before they could lift it.
The ears of the vessel
鼎黃耳，金鉉，利貞. The line names yellow handles, a metal carrying bar and favourable constancy. The Chinese word for the handles is 耳, “ears”. 鉉 is the bar used to lift the vessel through those handles.
Takashima describes the cauldron as a treasured vessel for blending flavours at sacrifices and feasts. Then he moves to the merchant’s business: knowing how to obtain a profit, he says, is like knowing how to lift the cauldron. The vessel’s shape supplies the comparison.
Where the object ends and the reading begins
His explanation is easy to picture. A person has an object worth lifting and needs a way to take hold of it. Takashima follows that image with a much broader assurance: he reads the precious handles and bar as signs of rich profits for this merchant.
The account tells us little about the visitor’s actual trade. There are no goods, prices or customers in it. We can picture the cauldron more clearly than the business. The description of the carrying bar is concrete; the promised profit remains Takashima’s judgment.
Put the other lines beside it
Ding has more household trouble elsewhere. One line mentions an obstructed handle; another describes a broken leg and spilled food. In the fifth, the means of carrying the vessel are present. Reading the lines together gives the fine handles some practical weight.
Takashima’s case ends with congratulations to the merchant. It records no later result. You can leave him there and return to the vessel: where would your hands go, and what would keep its contents from spilling while you moved it?
Sources & translation
Takashima Ekidan, expanded edition (1901), 下經貞, p. 20, Ding, fifth line. The account records the interpretation without a later result. English introduction: DaYan.