䷚
Hexagram 27: Yi (颐) — Nourishment
Hexagram 27, Yi (颐) — Nourishment, is the twenty-seventh figure of the I Ching, composed of the Mountain trigram over the Thunder trigram; the ancients read it as the mouth that takes in and gives out.
Meaning
Yi is the hexagram of nourishment. The figure's shape is that of an open mouth, the solid lines above and below framing a hollow center, and the old readers saw the body taking in what sustains it and giving out what it speaks. The judgment is plain: pay heed to the providing of nourishment. The teaching is that a person should watch both what enters — food, influence, company — and what leaves: the words one lets through the same gate. The mouth is the book's symbol for the whole economy of the self.
Turned toward the working life, the figure is about what a person feeds on and what a person offers. The first line is sharp: you let your magic tortoise go, and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. The commentators saw here the person who abandons what he genuinely has to envy what another possesses — the self-nourishment of the spirit traded away for the sight of another's plenty. The figure asks what one is truly living on: the solid, or the borrowed.
For the bonds between people, Yi was read as the mutual feeding that a good relationship is. The fourth line, turning to the summit for provision with a tiger's insatiable craving, was the ancients' picture of the hunger that is never filled — the partner who takes and is not nourished, because what he seeks is not food but appetite itself. Against it stands the sixth line, the source of nourishment, which the commentators read as the one who has learned to feed himself, and so can feed others from a full store.
Within a cycle, this figure marks a phase of tending to the basics — the stretch when the wise course is to look after what sustains life and to mind what one says. The image of the mountain over thunder is the book's picture of the still shape that takes in and the stirring force that moves within. The counsel is to nourish the body and the mind deliberately, and to let the words that leave the mouth be as carefully chosen as the food that enters it.
The Judgment
“The Corners of the Mouth. Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment.”
The Six Lines of Nourishment
Line 1You let your magic tortoise go, and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
Line 2Turning to the summit for nourishment, deviating from the path to seek nourishment from the hill.
Line 3Turning away from nourishment. Perseverance brings misfortune. Do not act thus for ten years.
Line 4Turning to the summit for provision brings good fortune. Spying about with sharp eyes like a tiger with insatiable craving. No blame.
Line 5Turning away from the path. To remain persevering brings good fortune. One should not cross the great water.
Line 6The source of nourishment. Awareness of danger brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Receive your own hexagram and its interpretation for your specific question.
Cast the I Ching Oracle →
Free · No sign-up · 3,000-year-old method
Frequently Asked Questions
Which trigrams build Hexagram 27?
Yi (颐) sets the Mountain trigram (Gen, 艮) above the Thunder trigram (Zhen, 震). The figure's shape is an open mouth — solid lines above and below a hollow center — which the ancients read as the body taking in what sustains it and giving out what it speaks.
What does the judgment of Hexagram 27 say?
It reads: 'The Corners of the Mouth. Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment.' The old commentaries explain the teaching: watch what enters the mouth — food, influence, company — and what leaves it, the words one lets through the same gate.
What is meant by letting the magic tortoise go?
The first line, 'You let your magic tortoise go, and look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping,' was read as the person who abandons what he truly has to envy another's plenty. The commentators saw in it the warning against trading the genuine nourishment of the spirit for the borrowed sight of what others possess.
Related
Source: Judgment and line texts follow the Wilhelm/Baynes rendering of the Yijing.
Energy Yi offers cultural education and self-reflection, not fortune-telling or professional advice.