A cauldron over a wood fire: a hexagram of the vessel that cooks, where inward compliance and outward keenness of eye and ear bring great success.
The lower trigram is Xun ☴, wind and wood, whose quality is entering; the upper is Li ☲, fire, bright and clinging. Zhu Xi reads the six lines as the parts of a cauldron, from legs to carrying bar, and wood feeding fire as the cooking a cauldron exists for. Compliant within and keen of eye and ear without, the hexagram points to great success.
Judgment (卦辭)
The text attached to the whole hexagram, read when no line is changing.
鼎，元吉，亨。
Ding: great success.
Zhu Xi sees a cauldron in the lines themselves: the broken bottom line is the legs, the three solid lines above it the belly, the broken fifth line the ears, and the solid top line the bar that lifts it. Wood entering fire to cook food is what a cauldron is for. Compliant within, the hexagram has eye and ear without: keen perception. Derived from Hexagram 57, Xun, it has a yin line advanced into the fifth place, answering the firm second line, and so things go through greatly. The received text adds 吉, good fortune; Zhu Xi treats it as a stray character, so it is left out here.
Image (大象)
The Image commentary (象傳) reads the whole hexagram from its two trigrams.
木上有火，鼎。君子以正位凝命。
Fire above wood: Ding. The noble person, accordingly, keeps his position upright and makes the mandate hold firm.
A cauldron is a weighty vessel, Zhu Xi says, hence the idea of holding one's position correctly and making the mandate settle. He compares 凝 to the word in the phrase “the highest way does not settle there,” and links the image to a saying in the classical commentaries: bringing high and low into accord to receive heaven's blessing.
Lines (爻辭)
From the bottom line to the top. In the line names, nine (九) marks a yang line and six (六) a yin line.
Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading
鼎顛趾，利出否，得妾以其子，无咎。
The cauldron tips over, feet in the air. It is favorable to empty out what is foul. One takes a concubine and through her gains a son. No blame.
At the bottom, this line is the cauldron's feet; answering the fourth line above, they swing up and the vessel overturns. But nothing has been cooked in it yet, and old, foul residue lies inside, so tipping it out turns the mishap to good use. Gaining a son through a concubine follows the same logic. Zhu Xi sums it up: success drawn from a failure, worth drawn from a humble start.
Line 2, yang (九二)changing line in the shared reading
鼎有實，我仇有疾，不我能即，吉。
The cauldron holds food. My foe is ailing and cannot come near me. Good fortune.
A firm line in the central place is the cauldron with real substance in it. “My foe” is the first line: yin and yang drawn together without propriety would only pull each other into wrong, and so become enemies. If the second line keeps itself firm and centered, the first, close as it is, cannot reach it. The good fortune rests on that self-possession.
Line 3, yang (九三)changing line in the shared reading
鼎耳革，其行塞，雉膏不食，方雨虧悔，終吉。
The cauldron's ears are being altered; its moving is blocked. The pheasant fat goes uneaten. As rain comes on, regret wanes. In the end, good fortune.
This line holds fine food in the cauldron's belly, but it is too firm and off-center, looks past the ears toward the top, and stands where the lower trigram turns. So the ears are being altered, the vessel cannot be lifted, and the rich pheasant fat feeds no one. Yet yang in a yang place is correct: if it holds to itself, yin and yang will meet like rain, regret fades, and the end is good.
Line 4, yang (九四)changing line in the shared reading
鼎折足，覆公餗，其形渥，凶。
The cauldron's leg breaks, and the duke's stew spills. The punishment is heavy. Misfortune.
The fourth line sits high and carries a heavy charge, yet it relies on the weak first line below, its correspondent, and so cannot bear the load: the leg snaps and the duke's food is spilled. Following a scholar named Chao (晁氏), Zhu Xi reads 形渥, “its form is drenched,” as 刑剭, a heavy punishment. The text judges the outcome misfortune; the image is of a weight too great for the support it rests on.
Line 5, yin (六五)changing line in the shared reading
鼎黃耳金鉉，利貞。
The cauldron has yellow ears and a metal carrying bar. It is fitting to be correct and firm.
The fifth line is the cauldron's ears, yellow because it holds the center. Metal stands for hardness, and the bar runs through the ears to lift the vessel. Open in the middle, this yin line answers the hard, firm second line; hence the picture. The favorable point, Zhu Xi says, lies simply in staying correct and firm. He notes another view, that the metal bar means the top line, and leaves it for further study.
Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading
鼎玉鉉，大吉，无不利。
The cauldron has a jade carrying bar. Great good fortune. Nothing that is not favorable.
The top line is the carrying bar. A yang line in a yin place is firm yet able to be mild, as jade is hard yet warm, and so the bar is jade. The verdict is wholly favorable, and Zhu Xi attaches a condition to it: it holds for one who actually has this quality of firmness with warmth.
If you drew this hexagram
Which text to read depends on how many lines are changing. With none, read the judgment; with one, read that line; with more, follow Zhu Xi's rules in the Yixue qimeng.
Text: Zhu Xi, Yuanben Zhouyi benyi (原本周易本義), Siku Quanshu Wenyuange copy, as transcribed by the Kanseki Repository (KR1a0031), corrected and punctuated by K-magpie. Translation and explanation: written by AI (Claude) from Zhu Xi's commentary and checked against the text and commentary. Sources and the list of corrections are on the Today's Hexagram page.