Hexagram 50 for work
Hexagram 50 Cauldron for work and career
At work Ding is the hexagram of the institution that follows the revolution: the organisation, the role, the system that cooks talent into something useful. The Great Image says the superior person 'sets positions right and consolidates the mandate' — the work after a change is to put each person in the proper place and let the new order mature on the fire. The Tuan praises the receptive ruler who lets the strong line below carry the weight.
The lines are about fit between ability and position. Two has substance and should guard its steps; three is capable but the handle that would raise it has been altered; four has taken on more than its support can bear and spills the dish. Five is the leader who holds the centre and lets the able lift; six is the senior figure whose strength has become jade. A changing line in the lower trigram concerns what you bring to the vessel; one in the upper trigram concerns whether the position you hold or seek can bear what is put in it.
The hexagram in brief
Fire over wood: the cauldron that cooks the offering. Supreme success — the vessel that turns raw into cooked, nourishing the wise and settling the new order after a revolution.
Put things in their proper place, cultivate talent, and let the new arrangement mature slowly on the fire.
The judgment
鼎：元吉，亨。Ting gives the intimation of great progress and success.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 鼎 Cauldron has its own page:
- 初六Six at the beginningoverturned · clearing out · humble beginnings
- 九二Nine in the second placesubstance within · envy at a distance · guard your steps
- 九三Nine in the third placehandles changed · blocked · rain at last
- 九四Nine in the fourth placebroken leg · spilled offering · beyond one's strength
- 六五Six in the fifth placeyellow ears · the centre · firmness
- 上九Nine at the topjade bar · tempered strength · great fortune
The same hexagram for
Questions
- What does hexagram 50, Cauldron, mean for a career question?
- At work Ding is the hexagram of the institution that follows the revolution: the organisation, the role, the system that cooks talent into something useful. The Great Image says the superior person 'sets positions right and consolidates the mandate' — the work after a change is to put each person in the proper place and let the new order mature on the fire. The Tuan praises the receptive ruler who lets the strong line below carry the weight.
- What does Hexagram 50, 鼎 Cauldron, mean?
- Fire over wood: the cauldron that cooks the offering. Supreme success — the vessel that turns raw into cooked, nourishing the wise and settling the new order after a revolution.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).