I Ching Ding Meaning: Hexagram 50 Explained

What Ding 鼎 most often has written wrong is not a line text. It is the picture.

Jia Ren 家人 is Wind over Fire, Xun above Li: wind above, fire below. Ding is Fire over Wind, Li above Xun: fire above, wind-wood below. Both are Xun and Li, only reversed. Reverse them, and the meaning reverses with them. Jia Ren is wind coming out of fire, teaching by words blowing from the house outward. Ding is wood with fire above, used for cooking, founding anew, feeding the worthy. In class I have students memorize these two hexagrams’ above and below first, then talk marriage or opening a shop. Flip them, and you teach ordering a house as cooking a state, or a new regime as cooking dinner for the family.

Ding is a vessel. The Three Dynasties took the ding as regime, as sacrifice, as a pot that feeds scholars. Draw Ding: the nature of the matter is usually the old has already been Ge-d, and now there must be a new pot, things cooked through, people fed and held.

Why Ge is followed by Ding

The Xu Gua says: 「革物者莫若鼎，故受之以鼎。」 Nothing changes things like a ding, so Ding follows. What can thoroughly change a thing: nothing is more able than a ding. Ge 革 is removing the old; Ding is cooking the new. Only Ge, no cooking: the ground is full of the raw. Only cooking, no Ge: last night’s filth is still in the pot.

The Tuan says: 「鼎，象也。以木巽火，亨飪也。」 Ding is an image. Wood, Xun, fire: cooking. Heng-ren 亨飪 is cooking. Wood enters yielding, fire above, and it can be cooked through. The superior person’s homework in the Xiang is 「正位凝命」— correct the position, condense the fate. The seat must be correct; fate must be able to condense. Ding does not tell you to be passionate. It tells you to make a new title sit real, to cook through the people who should be fed. The judgment is only four characters: 「元吉，亨」— great fortune, opening. It looks very full. Among the six lines there is the misfortune of spilling stew. Not every line is great fortune.

Sages cook to offer to the Lord on High, and cook greatly to feed sages and worthies. Ding’s two uses: sacrifice, and feeding people who can get things done. Today it need not be a temple. It can be a company, a studio, a new policy, a new family. The pot you opened: who is it for? Feeding the worthy, or feeding your own face? Ask that, and Ding will not become a display to show off.

Career and wealth: can you carry this pot?

Ask about career and draw Ding: it suits founding anew — a new post, a new team, a new brand, a new policy, a new structure of cooperation. After Ge, Ding is putting title and substance on the table together. In wealth, Ding looks like results that can be cooked out: a product, performance, income that can feed people. It is more active than Jing 井. Jing draws; Ding cooks. What Ding fears most: a large pot, very thin feet.

Nine in the fourth: 「鼎折足，覆公餗，其形渥，凶。」 The ding’s foot breaks, spilling the duke’s thick stew; the form is soaked; unfortunate. The foot broken, public thick porridge poured out, juice all over you: unfortunate. Cannot carry and still forcing the carry: Ding’s clearest great misfortune. Draw nine in the fourth: promotion, taking a family business, guaranteeing for someone, opening three lines at once — first measure the foot. Su 餗 is food for the public, for the many — not your own midnight snack. Overturn it, and what is dirty is public trust, and dirty to your form. The modern image is very straight: a project flipping, a capital chain breaking, becoming a manager and knocking over the team’s meal. Do not save this line with “I can tough it out.” Toughing it out is not a foot. A foot is structure, helpers, a seat where authority and duty match.

Nine in the second: 「鼎有實，我仇有疾，不我能即，吉。」 The ding has substance; my opponent has illness, cannot come near me; fortunate. Contents in the pot; the rival is ill, cannot approach: fortunate. In career: content first solid. Someone wants to grab, stir; they cannot come near. Cooking the goods well matters more than scolding the enemy away. The initial six: 「鼎顛趾，利出否，得妾以其子，無咎。」 The ding upside down, toes up; beneficial to put out the old; obtaining a concubine through her son; no blame. Tip the ding, pour out the waste: beneficial. At a new start, the old Pi 否 must first be cleared. Obtaining a concubine through her son: the image is a side relationship that instead produces usable succession. Draw the initial six: not necessarily truly taking a concubine. Often: informal hands, a backup, a second plan, that instead help you clear the dirty. A new officer first pouring out slag: this line is useful.

Ding in love: a new house must be able to cook, not only display photos

Ask about love and draw Ding: often after Ge — splitting then joining, marrying again, cooking a relationship from romance into a house that can feed people. Ding is a vessel of founding anew. It suits talking marriage, living together, cooking life through. It is not Wind over Fire, Jia Ren. Jia Ren asks whether inner and outer seats are correct, teaching by words, the house’s order. Ding asks whether this new pot has substance, whether the feet suffice, whom it feeds.

If you are already together, Ding reminds you whether you have only ritual and no stew. A large wedding banquet, daily no one cooking, no one cooking the days through: the ding is empty. Six in the fifth: 「鼎黃耳金鉉，利貞」— yellow ears, a gold bar; beneficial to persist. The ears are yellow, the lifting bar gold: it can be lifted, it can hear. In a relationship there must be ears: able to hear, able to be lifted onto the right fire. Ears Ge-d, and nine in the third arrives.

Nine in the third: 「鼎耳革，其行塞，雉膏不食。」 The ding’s ears changed; walking is blocked; pheasant fat not eaten. Ears changed, spoiled; the road blocked; good meat cannot enter the mouth. The communicating ear once changed, however good the conditions cannot enter the mouth. Draw nine in the third: in love, common each saying each, a title there and cannot walk. Repair the ear first, then talk heat. Do not hear pheasant fat not eaten as the other person not good enough. Often the two ears that lift the ding have a problem.

If you are single and draw Ding, you may enter a relationship that can make a home, work together — or you yourself must found a new vessel of life: an independent household, a new rest, a new self-feeding. Pour out old slag before inviting people to eat. Cleaner than taking last night’s leftovers to a matchmaking.

Correct position, condensing fate: lines that separate “can cook” from “will flip”

Six in the fifth in position: yellow ears, gold bar; yielding in the ruler’s place, able to hear, able to be lifted by a gold bar. Draw six in the fifth: it suits being the person who carries the many’s stew well — manager, head cook, matron, project lead. Beneficial to persist: correct, then beneficial. Ears should be yellow, centered and correct. Do not use a private grudge as a handle.

Upper nine: 「鼎玉鉉，大吉，無不利。」 A jade bar; great fortune, nothing unfavorable. A jade lifting bar, firm and with moisture, at the top. A completed ding: it can be lifted and set down with grace. Draw the upper nine: career and name can arrive, and still remember a ding feeds the worthy, not your own reflection. Nothing unfavorable: because the place is already beyond scrambling, and the bar can still be used clean.

Read the initial six through the upper nine together: first pour slag, then have substance, ears cannot break, feet cannot break, ears should be yellow, the bar should be jade. Ding’s fortune is in the vessel complete. Ding’s misfortune is in a broken foot spilling stew. In class, whenever someone asks “can I take this seat,” I almost always bring out nine in the fourth for them to match. Liking to take it, being praised into taking it, family forcing you to take it: none of that equals the foot being there.

In class, Ding and Jia Ren must be read against each other

Students ask about marriage, shake Ding, and some are immediately glad: a home will be made. Making a home matches Jia Ren more. Ding can also make a home, and it leans toward a new structure, a new feeding, a new named vessel. Remarriage, a team-style new family, cooking career and home in the same pot: Ding appears more often than Jia Ren. Jia Ren is wind and fire, fire inside, wind outside, the house’s warmth blowing out. Ding is fire above, wood-wind below, fire used to cook things through. One asks whether the house is in order. One asks whether a new vessel can stand.

Another pairing is Ge. Ge is water and fire unable to bear each other, must change. Ding is after changing, you must cook. Draw Ding while the old has not been Ge-d, and there will be Pi in the pot; the initial six tells you to tip the toes and put out the old. Draw Ge without Ding, and after changing it will be empty. Ask the two together: more complete than only asking “should I change.”

Correct position, condensing fate: I have students write three lines: what is my seat now, whom do I cook for, who are my feet. If they can write it, Ding is a vessel. If they cannot, Ding is a display. A display looks handsome. One cook, and the foot breaks.

How Jia Ren orders: I Ching Jia Ren Meaning | Hexagram 37 How to Read: The Family, Marriage and Ordering the House. How Ge removes the old: I Ching Ge Meaning | Hexagram 49 How to Read: Revolution, How to Time Change. A new vessel feeding people still needs a well at the source: I Ching Jing Meaning | Hexagram 48 How to Read: The Well, How to Repair What Feeds People.

I Ching Ding FAQ

What is the difference between Ding and Jia Ren? Why do both seem to talk about a house?

Both have Xun, both have Li, above and below reversed. Jia Ren, Xun above Li, Wind over Fire: ordering the house, teaching by words, inner and outer correct seats. Ding, Li above Xun, Fire over Wind: cooking, founding anew, feeding the worthy, a vessel of regime. Ask “how does the house live”: look at Jia Ren first. Ask “can a new structure stand, can it be carried”: look at Ding. Reverse the picture, and advice to people is wrong for the whole board.

If I draw Ding, is opening a shop, a promotion, all fortunate?

As a whole it leans toward founding anew. You still look at feet and ears. Nine in the fourth, a broken foot, is great misfortune. Nine in the third, ears changed, cannot walk. Opening with substance, helpers, clear ears and eyes: that looks like great fortune. Only passion and a large pot: most easily spill the duke’s stew.

Spilling the duke’s stew: is that always corruption, always a scandal?

Old notes do often think toward disgrace, toward punishment. In divination it is more often: a public matter you overturned, soup on you, everyone sees. It can be a case of wrongdoing. It can also be not enough ability knocking over the many’s meal. Measure the foot first, then take the public stew.

Obtaining a concubine through her son: is that telling people to keep a side household?

Not teaching you to open a side household. The initial six’s image: an incorrect, side path that instead clears old filth and produces usable succession. Today it is often a backup, an assistant, an informal channel, a second plan. Reading it as encouraging an affair is treating an image as a license. In class I do not allow that use.

For an online hexagram, try free love divination and match both birthdays with this reading.