Hexagram 50
The Cauldron
Fire over Wind
The judgment
元吉，亨Wood feeds fire and the bronze vessel has to sit level. What is cooked here goes to other people, so a wrong position spills more than it costs you.
The image
Fire rises from the wood and warms the vessel from below. What is held in the middle reaches the rim.
The six lines
Read from the bottom up. A line that moves is read here, and read again in the hexagram it becomes.
- 初六Line 1
鼎颠趾，利出否，得妾以其子，无咎
Turn the ding on its feet, legs up, and pour out the old residue inside. Awkward as it looks, only an emptied vessel holds anything new. So a woman of low birth is taken in, and through the son she bears she finds her place, mother and child both standing.
Marked in the textno blame
- 九二Line 2
鼎有实，我仇有疾，不我能即，吉
The vessel is full; a resentful neighbor cannot get close. Keep the fullness and spend no energy answering them.
Marked in the textauspicious
- 九三Line 3
鼎耳革，其行塞，雉膏不食，方雨亏悔，终吉
The ring of the ding has come off, so it cannot be lifted, and the way ahead is blocked. Rich pheasant broth sits right there, yet never reaches the mouth. Then rain falls, lessening the regret, and what was stuck opens; in the end things settle.
Marked in the textregretauspicious
- 九四Line 4
鼎折足，覆公𫗧，其刑渥，凶
A load-bearing leg snaps and the whole meal spills; close to the seat of power, the cost lands in plain view.
Marked in the textominous
- 六五Line 5
鼎黄耳金铉，利贞
With brass handles and a steady bar, lifting becomes sure; the central seat gives the load somewhere to rest.
- 上九Line 6
鼎玉铉，大吉，无不利
A jade crossbar, and the vessel need not move again; at the end, take the hand off what it was holding up.
Marked in the textauspiciousnothing works against it
Where each changing line leads
Flip one line and it is a different hexagram. These are the six it becomes.
This page is for reference. To get a hexagram from six throws, cast your own.
The classical text is the Zhouyi, public domain, checked against a Wikisource transcript. The readings are ours. Daily hexagram