初六：鼎颠趾，利出否，得妾以其子，无咎。
Begin by clearing what has gone stale so existing material can serve a new purpose. The ancient status imagery need not prescribe a hierarchy for relationships today.
I Ching Hexagram 50
Dǐng · The Cauldron
鼎 · Hexagram 50
Ding concerns transforming available ingredients into something that nourishes. Fire above Wood needs a sound vessel and appropriate heat. After change, the task is to establish a dependable form in which ability, roles, and responsibility can work together.
Upper trigram: Fire/Lí
Lower trigram: Wind/Xùn
The situation you may be in
A change may have been chosen while the new way of living or working still needs establishing. A new name or position is not maturity; the arrangement must be sound and its results useful to people.
How to respond
Bring together worthwhile ingredients and capable people, completing the passage from preparation to use. Change outdated habits while securing the foundation so that valuable content is not lost through an unsuitable vessel.
Judgment and Image
Judgment
鼎：元吉，亨。
The Cauldron. Supreme good fortune. Success.
Image
木上有火，鼎；君子以正位凝命。
Fire over wood: The Cauldron. The superior person consolidates his fate by making his position correct.
Applying it to real life
Love & relationships
A new stage of relationship needs practical arrangements to hold the feeling. Discuss shared life, participation, and commitment so intimacy is nourished in daily conduct, not only through a new label.
Career & work
Develop people, improve the quality of results, and establish dependable ways of working. Match important responsibilities to capability rather than assigning a heavy load on enthusiasm alone.
Choice & decisions
Assess not only whether the direction is worthwhile, but which people and arrangements can make it work. A choice needs a real vessel; announcing change does not complete the transition.
Timing & pace
Build, nourish, and allow maturation. Do not serve what is unfinished, but share it when ready so that the transformation produces a benefit people can experience.
The six changing lines
The lines unfold from the bottom upward, describing one pattern of change from its first appearance to its extreme. If your reading has a changing line, begin with that position.
九二：鼎有实，我仇有疾，不我能即，吉。
With something substantial to offer, maintain quality and appropriate distance. You need not enter every entanglement created by surrounding unease.
九三：鼎耳革，其行塞，雉膏不食，方雨亏悔，终吉。
A valuable result is temporarily unusable because the means of carrying it does not fit. Restore that connection before dismissing the substance.
九四：鼎折足，覆公餗，其形渥，凶。
A load beyond the support's capacity can overturn a shared result. Address the mismatch between responsibility and capability rather than concealing it through appearances.
六五：鼎黄耳金铉，利贞。
Suitable fittings and cooperation allow a balanced coordinator to bring capable people together. Keep the work directed by sound principles.
上九：鼎玉铉，大吉，无不利。
Substance and support are mature together. Put the result to use with confidence so its nourishment can reach more people.
A common misreading
Ding is neither a simple rise in status nor replacement for its own sake. It values ingredients and vessel together; the broken leg in its fourth line shows how weak support can overturn a valuable result.
Related hexagrams
Text and interpretation
Updated 12 September 2026Reviewed by MysticEast Research
This page preserves the Chinese Judgment, Image, and line texts of the received Zhouyi. MysticEast's modern explanations are newly written to emphasize stages of change and practical judgment rather than fixed good-or-bad predictions.
Read the Zhouyi at the Chinese Text ProjectLet the hexagram meet your actual question
A guide gives you the map. A cast made with a clear question can help locate the exact stage of change you are experiencing.