In love
In life as a couple, Ding stresses care in everyday life: shared meals, concrete attentions, a home where everyone feels nourished.
Hexagram 50
I Ching hexagram 50: The Cauldron (Ding)
Ding, the Cauldron, is the hexagram of shared nourishment: what you transform with care feeds talent and honors what matters most.
- nourishing
- transformation
- worth
The essentials
Ding at a glance
For you, Ding invites you to put your best resources at the service of what matters, and to prepare them with care.
A strength
The ability to turn raw materials into something that nourishes, honors, and brings people together.
Something to watch
A cauldron overturned or with its handles out of place: momentum is cut when the support lacks solidity.
- What it advises
- Prepare what you offer with care, and make sure what carries it is sound: framework, tools, team.
- Its opposite
- 3. Difficulty at the Beginning (Zhun)
The situation
Ding is the great three-legged cauldron in which meals and offerings were prepared. The ancient text describes it in two words: great success. It is the image of fire transforming and feeding those you wish to honor.
The hexagram speaks of what you put in the cauldron and how you serve it. Its lines show a vessel turned over to empty out its dregs, handles that shift, legs that give way and let the dish spill, then yellow handles and jade rings, signs of a preparation carried through to the end.
Ding invites you to surround yourself with people of worth and offer them the best you have: a solid framework, time, consideration.
The image: Fire above Wind
- AboveFire: clarity that clings
- BelowWind: gentleness that penetrates
Fire above Wood: the wood feeds the flame beneath the vessel. According to the commentary, the good person holds their position with rectitude and so fulfills their mission.
Consult the I Ching
Throw three coins six times: your hexagram, the lines that change, and the direction they point to.
Free, no account · nothing is sent · no predictions
The six lines
- 1st line (bottom) · brokenThe cauldron overturned, legs in the air: what had piled up inside is emptied out. A useful clearing, without fault, like a secondary wife who earns her place through her son.
- 2nd line · solidThe cauldron is full: even if a rival is jealous, they cannot get close. Keeping your substance is judged favorable.
- 3rd line · solidThe handles have moved, and the dish is not served. A time of blockage; then rain comes and regrets fade.
- 4th line · solidThe legs give way and the contents meant for the sovereign spill: the shame of a burden too heavy for your means.
- 5th line · brokenYellow handles, metal rings: a welcoming and sturdy posture. Staying upright pays off here.
- 6th line (top) · solidJade rings: the precious flexibility that leads to success. The ancient text sees very good fortune and success in what you undertake.
Ding in your life
At work
In your work, Ding favors recruiting talent, training, and projects that turn raw material into a solid result.
The I Ching helps you reflect on how to act: it does not say what is coming.
How is it built?
- Character
- 鼎 (dǐng)
- Number
- 50 in the King Wen sequence
- Trigrams
- Fire (離) above, Wind (巽) below
- Inner hexagram
- 43. Breakthrough (Guai) (lines 2 to 4 and 3 to 5)
- Read upside down
- 49. Revolution (Ge)
- Symbol
- ䷱ (U+4DF1)
The English names are the usual renderings of the Chinese characters; the texts rely on the Chinese and on early public-domain translations (Legge, 1882; Philastre, 1885–1893).
Sources
- Wikipedia (English), “List of hexagrams of the I Ching,” read on October 15, 2026: numbers, characters, pinyin, lower and upper trigrams.
- Wikipedia (English), “Bagua,” read on October 15, 2026: lines of the eight trigrams, from bottom to top.
- James Legge (1815–1897), The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East, vol. XVI, 1882 (Wikisource): public domain.
- Paul-Louis-Félix Philastre (1837–1902), Le Yi King ou Livre des changements de la dynastie des Tsheou, Annales du Musée Guimet, 1885–1893: public domain (the author died more than 70 years ago).
Frequently asked questions about hexagram 50
What does hexagram 50 of the I Ching mean?
Hexagram 50, Ding, means the cauldron: the transformation that nourishes, and the careful preparation of what is offered to people of worth.
How are Ding and Ge related?
Ge (49), Revolution, changes what needs changing; Ding (50) establishes and nourishes the new order. The two are often read as a sequence.