Upper trigram
☲
Fire (Li) above
Clarity and attachment.
FamilyMiddle daughter
ElementFire
Hexagram 50 of 64
I Ching hexagram 50 ☲☴ The Cauldron
I Ching hexagram 50, The Cauldron, is fire above, wind below. In brief: transformation and cultivation. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 2, 3, 4 and 6 and its broken lines in 1 and 5.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚋⚊⚊⚊⚋⚊ 011101 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Fire over Wind Li ☲ / Xun ☴
- Every line changed
- № 3 Difficulty at the Beginning
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 169 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☴
Wind (Xun) below
Gentle penetration.
FamilyEldest daughter
ElementWood
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 50
The Judgement
The cauldron: something is being transformed into nourishment. Supreme good fortune and success come from using resources to feed and cultivate what is worthwhile.
The Image
Fire burning over wood, heating a vessel. The lesson is to hold a position steadily and correctly so that what is entrusted to you can mature.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 50 in James Legge’s translation
“Ting gives the intimation of great progress and success.”
“(The trigram representing) wood and above it that for fire form Ting. The superior man, in accordance with this, keeps his every position correct, and maintains secure the appointment (of Heaven).”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, divided, shows the caldron overthrown and its feet turned up. (But) there will be advantage in its getting rid of what was bad in it. (Or it shows us) the concubine (whose position is improved) by means of her son. There will be no error.
- Line 2 The second line, undivided, shows the caldron with the things (to be cooked) in it. (If its subject can say), ‘My enemy dislikes me, but he cannot approach me,’ there will be good fortune.
- Line 3 The third line, undivided, shows the caldron with (the places of) its ears changed. The progress (of its subject) is (thus) stopped. The fat flesh of the pheasant (which is in the caldron) will not be eaten. But the (genial) rain will come, and the grounds for repentance will disappear. There will be good fortune in the end.
- Line 4 The fourth line, undivided, shows the caldron with its feet broken; and its contents, designed for the ruler’s use, overturned and spilt. Its Subject will be made to blush for shame. There will be evil.
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows the caldron with yellow ears and rings of metal in them. There will be advantage through being firm and correct.
- Line 6 · top The sixth line, undivided, shows the caldron with rings of jade. There will be great good fortune, and all action taken will be in every way advantageous.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 169 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
The Cauldron for a decision
Invest in refinement — turn raw material, talent or an idea into something of lasting value. Proper form and patience let the transformation complete.
I Ching 50 in love and relationships
A relationship that nourishes growth in both people. Shared values are the vessel that holds it.
Hexagram 50 at work
Culture, cooking, craft and institutions that develop people. Stability of the container matters as much as the ingredients.
The six lines of hexagram 50
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yin yang yang yang yin yang — what each position means.
4 yang and 2 yin lines. One of the six stands in its proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 2–5 answer.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Wind below — gentle penetration — is the private, inner side of hexagram 50.
Fire above — clarity and attachment — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Wood below generates Fire above in the five-element cycle: the lower trigram feeds the upper. Energy moves upward and outward, which is the more productive of the two directions.
Read as a family
The middle daughter sits above and the eldest daughter below. Two sisters, the younger one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, with the junior one taking the lead.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 50
Nuclear hexagram
43 · Breakthrough
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Qian (Heaven) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Dui (Lake) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
3 · Difficulty at the Beginning
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Fire over Wind becomes Water over Thunder.
Inverse hexagram
49 · Revolution
The situation seen from the other side.
Turn the figure upside down and Fire over Wind becomes Lake over Fire.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Fire above, Wind below.
Fire over Wind: clarity and attachment meeting gentle penetration.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 50: The Cauldron.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/50/
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