شش خطی 50
دیگ، پایه‌گذاری دوران تازه (Dīng)

The cauldron is a vessel for refining by heat, whereby something new is obtained. As for the qualities of the hexagram, above is fire , luminous, below is wind , penetrating: Producing illumination through following an initiatory process, the mind becomes daily more humble, while illuminaton increases daily. In the body of the hexagram, in the second line (yang) and the fifth line (yin), emptiness and fullness correspond—within illumination is the ability to be empty and open, within obedience is the capacity for fulfillment. When empty and illumined, that enlightenment illumines all, and the mind cannot be moved by the vagaries of wealth and status. When fulfilled yet docile, all virtues are developed, and neither fortune nor calamity can disturb one’s nature. Producing illumination by following an initiatory process, following the process by opening awareness, emptiness and fullness balance each other. It is like the light of fire increasing when it gets wood, like the unrefined energy of wood being all transformed when it meets fire. Because it has the meaning of refining heating, it is called the cauldron.

This hexagram represents refining the great medicine; it follows on the previous hexagram the well. The well indicates following a process and passing through danger; having gotten through danger, the true yang trapped by conditioning is released, and the great medicine is born—then one can accordingly further illumination and operate the “fire” for refinement. The work of refinement is the means by which to sublimate earthly energy and stabilize celestial energy, causing the raw to ripen and the old to be renewed, whereby it is possible to illumine the mind and to solidify life. Therefore the cauldron is basically good and it has a developmental path. The basis is the potential of everlasting life of goodness; the cooking of the great medicine in the cauldron is the firing of this living potential to make it incorruptible and permanent. But in this path there is process and procedure; even the slightest deviation and the gold elixir will not form. Therefore people must first thoroughly investigate the true principle.

The cauldron stands for the process of refinement by fire. Above is fire , below is wind , associated with wood; there is fire on top of wood. Fire and wood in one place refining things by heating is the image of the cauldron.

What superior people see in this is that just as a cauldron is a means of cooking things but cannot accomplish this without the action of wood and fire, in the same way that Tao is the means of bearing life, but stabilization of life cannot be accomplished without the work of entry and understanding. Therefore they gradually cultivate practice on the basis of the proper standpoint to stabilize their life.

"Proper" means not being partial or biased, not being hypocritical or dishonest; the "position" or "standpoint" is the opening of the mysterious pass, the door of the earthly and the celestial. "Stabilization" means concentration without fragmentation. "Life" means the primordial generative energy.

If one can make one's standpoint correct, so that one's position is proper, one enters the Tao gradually and practices it with understanding; benevolence, justice, courtesy, and knowledge root in the mind, vitality, spirit, the earthly soul, and the celestial soul combine, the elements of vitality, energy, spirit, essence, and intent integrate—energy becomes replete, the spirit becomes complete, and life is stabilized.

The path of stabilizing life lies entirely in work in the right place. To be incapable of the proper position is to be ignorant of the mysterious pass. To be ignorant of the mysterious pass is to be ignorant of life. Being ignorant of life leads to attachment to voidness or clinging to form, taking the false to be real, entering into the byways of auxiliary methods. Then not only is one unable to stabilize life, one is even prone to injuring life.

Life is the primordial sane energy. Life is what is correct, what is correct is life. The correct standpoint, the proper position, is carefully preserving the sane energy in the mysterious pass, maturing and refining it with both gentle and intense effort, working by day, cautious by night, not letting any external energy contaminate the cauldron and furnace. Aiming to correct that which is not correct, aiming to stabilize that which is unstable, proceeding from effort to finally reach spontaneity, returning from confusion to order, the work of stabilizing life in its proper position is consummated.