Hexagram 50
火风鼎
The Cauldron
Hexagram 50, Ding (The Cauldron), is Fire over Wood - fire burning beneath the wood, cooking and transforming the raw into the nourishing.
Upper Trigram
☲
离 (火)
Lower Trigram
☴
巽 (木)
Palace
离 Palace
Shi / Ying Lines
Shi: Line 2 · Ying: Line 5
The 离 trigram (火) sits above the 巽 trigram (木), forming 火风鼎. This hexagram belongs to the 离 Palace.
Judgment (卦辞)
The Cauldron. Supreme good fortune. Success.
Judgment text follows the Wilhelm–Baynes translation (The I Ching or Book of Changes, Princeton University Press), quoted for commentary.
Image (象辞)
Fire over wood: the image of The Cauldron.
Line Texts (爻辞)
A cauldron with legs upturned. Removal of stagnating stuff. (鼎颠趾)
There is food in the cauldron. Comrades are envious. (鼎有实)
The handle of the cauldron is altered. (鼎耳革)
The legs of the cauldron are broken. Misfortune. (鼎折足)
The cauldron has yellow handles, golden rings. (鼎黄耳金铉)
The cauldron has rings of jade. Great good fortune. (鼎玉铉)
Hexagram 50 in Love & Relationships
Relationships: Relationships are cauldrons. Nourish them with steady attention, not sporadic intensity.
Hexagram 50 in Career & Decisions
Career: You are in a period of transformation. Ensure your 'vessel' - skills, systems, support - can hold what you are cooking.
Hexagram 50 as a yes / no answer
Leans yes
The hexagram's core image favors moving forward — conditions support the asking.
The I Ching reads situations, not fixed outcomes — your reading can weigh the moving lines with this leaning.
In-Depth Analysis[+]
Hexagram 50, Ding (The Cauldron), is Fire over Wood - fire burning beneath the wood, cooking and transforming the raw into the nourishing. The cauldron is the vessel of civilization, the sacred pot in which food and culture alike are prepared and shared. The judgment promises supreme good fortune. The lines trace the life of the cauldron: upturned legs that clear out stagnation, food within it, broken legs warning against carrying more than one can bear, and the final jade rings of perfected refinement. Ding teaches that transformation - of food, of ideas, of oneself - requires a proper vessel, steady fire, and patience.
Historical Stories[+]
The bronze ding vessels of ancient China, inscribed with laws and dedications, were the symbols of a dynasty's mandate - to possess the cauldron was to hold civilization itself.
The slow refining of a monastery's scriptorium, where raw knowledge was cooked and preserved across centuries, transforming the crude into the enduring.
Practical Applications[+]
Career: You are in a period of transformation. Ensure your 'vessel' - skills, systems, support - can hold what you are cooking.
Relationships: Relationships are cauldrons. Nourish them with steady attention, not sporadic intensity.
Personal Growth: What raw material in your life is ready to be transformed? Provide the fire and the patience.
Classical Sources for Hexagram 50
黄金策 (The Golden Strategy)明 (Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644)
The subject-category diagnostic framework and its mnemonic verse formulas for common life-domain questions.
Related Hexagrams
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