Hexagram 50: Ding

Fire over Wind · 火风鼎

Structure

• Number: 50 (King Wen sequence)
• Symbol: ䷱
• Upper trigram: Li (Fire)
• Lower trigram: Xun (Wind)
• Lines: yin yang yang yang yin yang (bottom to top)

The statement

元吉，亨。

——《周易》

What this hexagram indicates

This hexagram indicates renewal and formation, like placing ingredients into a cauldron to blend and cook. It is suitable for restructuring resources, upgrading products, and establishing a new order. Stabilize the core position; do not chase change while neglecting the systems and people that sustain it.

A Buddhist reading

Ding (the Cauldron) follows Revolution as the vessel in which change is completed. Zhixu calls it the vessel that moulds worthies, casts sages, cooks buddhas and refines patriarchs, meaning that becoming a finished vessel needs no doctrine sought apart from daily affairs; it happens in the very work of self moulding and self refining. In the image, an upright position secures destiny: virtue is the wood and destiny the fire, so when virtue goes, both rank and destiny go with it. The broken cauldron leg of the fourth line warns against seizing high office while unaware of how thin the virtue and how small the strength.

After Ouyi Zhixu (1599-1655), whose Chan commentary on the Changes reads each hexagram as a stage of practice.

The statement is quoted from the Book of Changes, which is in the public domain. The English reading on this page was prepared for this library.

Related hexagrams

• Previous / Inverted: Hexagram 49: Gethe whole figure turned upside down
• Next: Hexagram 51: Zhen
• Opposite: Hexagram 3: Zhunevery line changed to its opposite
• Nuclear: Hexagram 43: Guailines two to four below, three to five above

Related

• Liu Yao Divination ChartLiu Yao casts a hexagram about one specific matter and reads its structure. Unlike BaZi or Zi Wei, which describe a person, Liu Yao describes how a situation stands at a particular moment. This page walks through the full process from casting to attribution.
• Mei Hua Yi Shu CalculatorMei Hua Yi Shu is traditionally attributed to Shao Yong. What sets it apart is how freely it casts: a time, a spoken number, a direction or something noticed in passing will all serve. It attaches no stems and no relatives, reading the trigrams directly. This page covers casting through to the subject and object.