I Ching Yi (Nourishment) Meaning: Hexagram 27

Draw Yi (Nourishment) 頤 and students often first think of the mouth. What to eat, can I lose weight, does this job feed me. The mouth is not wrong. Yi originally looks like a mouth: solid above and below, empty in the middle. Only seeing eating, you read this hexagram narrow.

Yi is nourishing. Nourish the mouth, the body, people, virtue. In class I often ask three sentences: what do you eat? Whom do you live off? Are you nourishing the mouth, or nourishing a person. Those three unclear, and the unluck of watching others chew comes easily: watching others eat, your own spirit tortoise thrown away.

Mountain over Thunder: the mouth open, see where you nourish

Yi is Mountain over Thunder, Nourishment. Upper Gen 艮, mountain, stopping; lower Zhen 震, thunder, moving. Below moving, above stopping, the four middle lines all yin, empty. The whole hexagram like a mouth. What moves is the jaw; what stops is the upper palate. Eating, speaking: both pass here.

Do not reverse above and below. Fire over Thunder, Shi He 噬嗑, also looks like a mouth, but Shi He has yang in the middle: biting, closing, jail. Yi is empty in the middle: nourishing. Thunder over Mountain, Xiao Guo 小過, even more do not mix: that is Zhen above, Gen below, thunder on the mountain; Yi is thunder under the mountain. Reverse above and below and the mouth is not this mouth.

The Xugua says: 「物畜然後可養，故受之以頤。頤者，養也。」 After things are stored, then they can be nourished; therefore Yi follows. Yi is nourishing. Before it is Da Xu 大畜. Stored enough, then talk of raising. No storing, first talking of health, of who raises me: the scene will be empty. Yi follows storing: taking what was kept to nourish correctly.

The judgment is short: 「頤，貞吉。觀頤，自求口實。」 Correct, then lucky. Nourish correctly, then lucky. Contemplate Yi: look at this mouth — look at whom they nourish, and how they nourish themselves. Seek your own mouth’s substance: grain has to be sought yourself, and the way of seeking has to be examined yourself. Do not only envy others’ bowls.

The Tuan says: 「頤貞吉，養正則吉也。觀頤，觀其所養也。自求口實，觀其自養也。天地養萬物，聖人養賢以及萬民。頤之時大矣哉。」 Whom you nourish, how you nourish, how you yourself are nourished: three layers all there. Draw Yi: not only ask what to eat tonight. Also ask what this life of yours is standing on.

The Xiang says: 「山下有雷，頤。君子以慎言語，節飲食。」 Thunder under the mountain, Yi. The superior person is cautious in speech, moderate in food and drink. The mouth is used to eat, also to speak. Speech not cautious, food not moderate: the same mouth going wrong. Health, talk, a name: this hexagram often binds them together.

Career and wealth: first see whom you live off

Ask about career and draw Yi: overall asking about feeding. Does this job feed you, can you feed a team, can a product feed clients. Good for making the proper work familiar, seeing the source of income clearly, pulling the body back from overdraft. Not good then for looking in others’ bowls: another house’s funding, someone else’s exposure, peers showing off. The initial nine was written for this.

The most expensive tuition then is “I will go rely on a larger one.” Six in the second, inverted Yi, Yi at the hill, going forth unlucky: you should nourish yourself, yet seek that mouth at a height; going forth unlucky. Partnership, hanging on, relying on a great boss: draw this kind of inverted-Yi line, ask whether you threw the spirit tortoise away. A spirit tortoise can nourish itself, not watch others eat. Throw it, and however great the hill will not nourish long.

For wealth, Yi is like grain, not a lottery. Fixed money that can enter the mouth, can nourish people, fits the hexagram better than a one-time trend. Ask about investment and draw Yi: first see whether this money nourishes the family, the body, a career, or a face. Money that nourishes a face most easily watches others chew: see others buy, you buy too. Moderate food and drink, used on wealth, is moderating the exit, not never eating in a lifetime.

Ask about health, diet, a schedule: Yi is very on topic. Not every line is illness. It reminds you of the mouth and nourishing. Eating too fierce, speaking too fierce, staying up too fierce: all the mouth going past. Six in the third, going against Yi, correct yet unlucky, ten years do not use: the way of nourishing already goes against the classic, still saying you are holding on, and you will be wasted a long time. Draw this line: first change eating, speaking, whom you rely on. Do not keep holding that “correct.”

Love: who is nourishing whom — feeling, or the mouth

Ask about love and draw Yi: there is definitely nourishing in the relationship. Who cooks, who puts in money, who holds the scene, who nourishes mood. It can be very beautiful, and very crooked. Correct nourishing is mutually holding a person. Crooked nourishing is one person as grain, the other only responsible for eating.

If you are already together, six in the fourth’s inverted Yi is lucky instead. The same invert: six in the second unlucky, six in the fourth lucky. Six in the fourth is above nourishing below, the place right: the one with surplus nourishes the one without; a tiger watching, desire pursuing: concentrated, no blame. In love this is watching the responsibility tightly, not treating a person as prey. Six in the second is below seeking that mouth above, the place wrong, so going forth unlucky. Draw Yi: first ask, are you nourishing a person, or seeking a person to nourish you.

If you are single and draw Yi, first get self-nourishing right. Seek your own mouth’s substance. Life a mess, body empty, mood needing someone else to fill: watching others chew will come — watching couples eat, your own spirit tortoise not spirit. A connection can be asked, but first ask whether you can nourish yourself correctly. Relying on a stretch of love as grain: this hexagram will not agree.

Workplace, family, and Yi: also often ask about support. Parents, elders, people under the gate. Who should nourish, whether nourishing is correct. The Tuan has the sage nourishing the worthy and thereby the ten thousand people, not nourishing flatterers. Feeding resources to people who can shout is not Yi. It is spoiling. Putting down those who should be nourished, going to a hill to find a brighter mouth: six in the second.

Watching others chew is unlucky; nourishing from you can cross a great stream

In class I pick five lines, lining up watching others eat, nourishing yourself, nourishing people, nourishing incorrectly, being relied on.

Initial nine: 舍爾靈龜，觀我朵頤，凶. A spirit tortoise can live long without eating: you have your own nourishing. Watching me chew is puffing the cheeks watching others eat. You threw the spirit tortoise, to look at that piece by my mouth. Unlucky. Draw this line: I almost always advise, take the eyes back from others’ bowls. A colleague’s salary, a classmate’s wedding, a plate online: look long, and your own correct grain will go bland.

Six in the third: 拂頤，貞凶. Going against is violating. The way of nourishing already reversed, still held as correct, unlucky. Ten years do not use, nothing beneficial. Draw this line: what you think is holding on may be holding a bad way of nourishing — overdrafting the body, relying on an incorrect person, incorrect mouth-work. Correctness first has to return to correct nourishing, not grit teeth and continue.

Six in the fourth: 顛頤，吉。虎視眈眈，其欲逐逐，無咎. Invert is nourishing upside down, above nourishing below. Lucky. Tiger watching is staring tightly; desire pursuing is a concentrated heart of seeking to nourish. Draw this line: you can take on — nourishing family, people under you, sending resources where they should go. Be concentrated. Do not, halfway through nourishing, look at another hill. No blame.

Six in the fifth: 拂經，居貞吉，不可涉大川. Occupying the center, but force weak, having to rely on the upper nine to nourish. Where it goes against the classic: the ruler relying on the worthy. Stay correct, luck: stay in the correct place, luck; cannot cross a great stream. Draw this line: you can hold, listen, entrust the house to the right person. Leading the army across a river yourself: no. Yielding is not inability. This line cannot cross a great stream.

Upper nine: 由頤，厲吉，利涉大川. From: a host relying on you to nourish. Dangerous: the responsibility heavy, there will be danger. Lucky, because you can nourish. Beneficial to cross a great stream: then you can cross the large. Draw the upper nine: you cannot push it away. A team, a family, a group of mouths, come out from you. Fear is normal. Throwing it down is making Yi into Bo 剝.

So when people say “I drew Yi, watch diet,” ask again: watching others chew, going against Yi, or nourishing from you? What you eat is only the first layer. Whom you rely on, whom you nourish: that is this hexagram’s bone.

In class I have students put the bowls out

First bowl: self-nourishing. This week what you actually ate, slept, what you live off coming in. Fake wellness articles do not count.

Second bowl: whom you nourish. Your money, time, mouth: fed to whom. Parents, children, a boss, a camera, a person who does not reply: write it out.

Third bowl: whether to cross a great stream. Six in the fifth cannot; the upper nine can. Estimate yourself, also look at the line. Estimate wrong: not courage. Going against the classic.

The Xiang puts speech and food together: not literature. The mouth fast, and nourishing goes crooked. Draw Yi and spend the day judging others’ bowls: itself watching others chew.

Store first, then nourish. The previous hexagram: I Ching Da Xu Meaning | Hexagram 26 How to Read: Great Accumulation, Storing Force. Without nourishing you cannot move; the next hexagram is Da Guo 大過: I Ching Da Guo Meaning | Hexagram 28 How to Read: Preponderance of the Great, a Bending Beam. Nourishing has to be carried; Kun 坤 is also useful: I Ching Kun Meaning | Hexagram 2 How to Read: Receptive Earth, Lost First Then Gained. Kun is carrying; Yi is feeding. One is earth; one is the mouth.

I Ching Yi FAQ

Is Yi only for asking about health, losing weight?

Asking about health is very on topic, but not a dedicated charm. Career, support, whom you live off, talk: all often draw Yi. Treat it only as a diet hexagram and you will miss “contemplate whom they nourish.” Some people’s weight is fine; the grain they live off has a problem. This hexagram is equally accurate.

Watching others chew: can I not look at others, not learn from others?

Not that you cannot learn. That you cannot throw the spirit tortoise, only look at that piece by someone’s mouth. Learning a method is storing virtue. Envy until you yourself do not eat: watching others chew. The line is: after looking, can you still seek your own mouth’s substance.

I asked about supporting parents and drew Yi. Should I resign and go home?

Not necessarily. See whether your present nourishing is correct. Six in the fourth’s sending resources where they should go: a person need not be nailed at home. Six in the second’s throwing your own proper work to find brightness on a hill: going home is also not lucky. Support is grain being sent, not a performance for relatives.

Six in the second is also inverted Yi. Why unlucky, six in the fourth lucky?

Both invert; the place differs. Six in the second below, seeking nourishment from above, violating self-nourishing, going forth unlucky. Six in the fourth above, nourishing people below, the place right, so lucky. What a reading most fears is grabbing one word. Two words, inverted Yi, are not enough. Look who inverts toward whom.

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