The Book of Changes · Ding

Hexagram 50: The Cauldron

Fire (flame and the sun) over Wind (wind, and wood growing)

The vessel that cooks the offering: the figure of culture, of transformation by slow heat, and of a thing whose whole purpose is to hold something else well.

The image

Fire over wood. The reading is that a person consolidates their fate by making their position correct, the way a cauldron stands only because its legs are placed right.

Fire, above

Clarity, attachment, and what depends on its fuel.

Wind, below

Penetration, patience, and what works by not stopping.

The six lines

Read from the bottom up.

1. Line 1Tipped over to empty the residue out. An undignified start that clears the way for the use.
2. Line 2There is food in it, and others are envious and cannot reach it. Good fortune.
3. Line 3The handle is altered and the way is blocked, and the best of it goes uneaten. Rain comes, and it comes right.
4. Line 4The legs break and the meal is spilled. Carrying more than the structure holds.
5. Line 5Yellow handles and golden rings: the fittings are right at last. Constancy is what this asks for.
6. Line 6Rings of jade. Great good fortune, and nothing here works against you.

The same figure in Human Design

Human Design took its sixty four gates from this book, in this numbering, so hexagram 50 is Gate 50, Values.