I Ching hexagram guide
Hexagram 27: The Corners of the Mouth
Yi / 颐 · Mountain over Thunder
View editorial note
This English page uses the Judgment, the Image, and the line texts as the backbone of the reading. Drawing on Takashima Ekidan's practical case tradition, it applies the hexagram to the question at hand—role, timing, pressure, relationships, money, authority, and risk.
Change what feeds the pattern before chasing another result
Yi directs attention to repeated inputs: food, words, information, money, attention, and care. Ask what they are producing over time and whether support comes through the right source. Correct nourishment strengthens judgment and self-reliance; wrong nourishment multiplies appetite.
What to do now
Audit what enters your body, mind, household, or organization each day. Improve the source, amount, timing, and way you communicate. If you support others, define the real need, keep clear accounts, and provide in a way that rebuilds capacity.
What to avoid
Do not abandon your own resources to envy another's, seek rescue from an unsuitable source, or keep feeding a harmful pattern because it is familiar. Avoid careless promises, unmeasured generosity, addictive inputs, and support that purchases loyalty.
Timing
The lower lines warn against envy, reversed dependency, and persistent harmful feeding. The fourth line begins responsible provision through close observation. The fifth borrows capable help and stays local. The top line can nourish at scale with vigilance.
Love · Work · Money
Love: notice whether attention and words create security or dependence; care without feeding manipulation. Work: examine what the culture rewards, whom the system develops, and whether instructions are reliable. Money: choose honest income and accountable support; fund real need, limit leakage, and avoid providers who gain unhealthy control.
Read your changing line
If your reading has changing lines, start with those sections. They help you consider what may be changing in your situation.
Read the reasoning
The sections below explain the judgment, image, practical reading, and each changing line.
What this situation means
Current situation
Hexagram 27 Yi, The Corners of the Mouth, also known as Nourishment, can describe a situation in which the decisive issue is what enters and leaves the mouth: food, words, information, income, and care. Thunder moves below Mountain, forming the image of jaws that must move yet also know when to stop.
The pattern this hexagram describes
A health problem, financial model, relationship, team, or daily habit may be shaped less by one event than by what repeatedly feeds it. Yi asks both whom you nourish and how you obtain your own support. Consider where nourishment comes from, how it is provided, and whom or what it supports.
How this relates to your question
Diet, media, conversation, dependency, caregiving, salary, or resource allocation has become central; appetite is stronger than judgment; or changing the daily input would alter the outcome more than another dramatic intervention.
Decision · Judgment
Original Text
Perseverance brings good fortune. Observe how nourishment is given and how people seek food for their own mouths.
The answer
Nourishment brings good fortune when it is correct. Observe what the situation is feeding, who receives the benefit, and how each person obtains support. Choose sources that sustain health, integrity, competence, and increasing self-reliance.
Conditions
Food, money, attention, information, and care should match real need and come through honest means. Those who nourish others need clear accounts and limits; those being supported should retain or rebuild their ability to contribute.
Caution
Do not feed appetite merely because it is loud, seek support from the wrong source, or make promises through careless speech. A system can provide abundant resources and still nourish dependence, vanity, resentment, or illness.
The pattern behind the reading · Structure
The pattern
The hexagram resembles an open mouth, with firm lines above and below containing a yielding interior. Movement seeks nourishment; stillness sets the limit. The pattern expands from feeding one body to sustaining capable people and, through them, a whole community.
Test the pattern
Follow the supply chain. What enters, where did it come from, what behavior does it reward, and what kind of person or system does it produce over time? Correct nourishment increases steadiness and capacity. If the input creates greater craving, dependence, dishonesty, or disorder, the feeding relationship is wrong even when it feels generous.
How to proceed · Image
The method
Thunder beneath Mountain shows appetite and speech moving within a boundary. The noble person is careful with words and moderate in eating. Both actions recognize that food and words can shape health, relationships, decisions, and the course of a life.
Practical sequence
Audit food, information, money, attention, and repeated language. Remove the input that reliably disturbs judgment, establish portions and schedules, and take time to make important instructions precise. When supporting others, agree on the purpose and amount of help, when to review it, and how it can strengthen their ability to care for themselves.
Applied reading
Where it applies
Yi can describe diet, health routines, education, media use, income, hiring, benefits, parenting, caregiving, charity, public support, and the tone of a household or team. It often asks for a change in source before a change in result.
Questions to ask
What is feeding this pattern every day? Is my livelihood or support obtained correctly? Am I nourishing real need or rewarding appetite? What am I saying that others must live with? Does this care help the recipient become steadier?
What success looks like
Inputs are clean, measured, and suited to need. Speech becomes reliable, the body or system gains strength, resources are put to good use, and both giver and receiver know their responsibilities. Good nourishment builds strength instead of leaving people with ever greater cravings.
First Line
Current stage
You already possess an inner source of wisdom or self-support, yet you abandon it to stare at what someone else has. Envy turns a legitimate need into dependency before the process has even begun.
The line
‘You leave your sacred tortoise and look at me with hanging jaws. Misfortune.’
Reading
The sacred tortoise was believed to live without ordinary food; here it represents the capacity to judge and sustain yourself. Gaping at another person's resources means forgetting that capacity and making appetite your guide.
Action
Stop comparing access, status, body, income, or attention. Inventory what you can already use, restore the neglected skill or routine, and take one practical step to provide for yourself. Ask for help only after defining the real need and your own contribution.
Second Line
Current stage
The search for support has turned upside down. Instead of following the normal source and relationship, you reach toward a distant or unsuitable provider, creating dependency and disorder.
The line
‘Nourishment reversed, departing from the rule; seeking nourishment at the hill. Going brings misfortune.’
Reading
Need alone does not make every source appropriate. When roles, terms, or direction are inverted, continued pursuit may cost dignity, stability, or safety. The distant hill cannot replace the proper foundation below.
Action
Stop the approach and map the correct channel. Restore ordinary income, qualified care, agreed family roles, or accountable funding before seeking exceptional rescue. Do not borrow from someone who gains control over you or ask a dependent to carry the provider.
Third Line
Current stage
The pattern is not merely imperfect; it contradicts the purpose of nourishment and is being defended as if persistence could make it right. Time will deepen the damage rather than prove commitment.
The line
‘Contrary to nourishment. Constancy brings misfortune. For ten years, do not use it. Nothing is favorable.’
Reading
Feeding addiction, corruption, vanity, chronic overwork, or a business that profits by weakening its users cannot be corrected through loyalty to the same model. The long warning shows the need for a decisive break.
Action
End the harmful input or funding stream. Withdraw access, change the diet or platform, close the exploitative offer, and seek expert support where dependence is entrenched. Do not negotiate for a slightly smaller dose of what keeps producing the injury.
Fourth Line
Current stage
A person in a higher position looks downward to identify real need and provide continuing support. The direction appears reversed only because responsibility now flows from above to below; careful attention makes it favorable.
The line
‘Nourishment reversed. Good fortune. The tiger watches intently, its desire continuing. No blame.’
Reading
The tiger's focus is disciplined observation, not predation. Effective provision requires sustained attention to who needs what, while appetite is kept under control. Proper oversight prevents generosity from becoming leakage.
Action
Assess needs directly, publish criteria, keep clean accounts, and deliver support on a reliable schedule. Watch outcomes as closely as distribution. Continue feeding what restores capacity, and stop benefits that are being diverted, hoarded, or used to manipulate.
Fifth Line
Current stage
You hold a responsible position but do not personally possess the full capacity to nourish the situation. The proper course is to rely on someone with the skills or resources you lack while staying within safe limits.
The line
‘Departing from the rule. Remaining constant in place brings good fortune. One must not cross the great river.’
Reading
Borrowing expertise is not failure. Pretending independence and taking on a vast risk would be. The line favors steady care, thoughtful delegation, and refusal of expansion beyond the support now available.
Action
Bring in the clinician, operator, mentor, supplier, or financial partner who can provide what is missing. Remain accountable for the decision, keep the scope local, and postpone the major crossing until internal capacity and continuity are secure.
Top Line
Current stage
The responsibility for nourishment now rests with you. Others depend on your judgment, so the position carries real danger; handled with reverence, it can also support a large undertaking.
The line
‘The source of nourishment. Danger, but good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river.’
Reading
The top line is not permission to enjoy being needed. It describes accountable provision at scale. Because failure would affect many people, vigilance and correct purpose turn danger into useful authority.
Action
Confirm supplies, staffing, standards, and contingency reserves before the crossing. Delegate delivery while keeping oversight, protect those most exposed, and measure whether recipients become healthier and more capable. Use the power to nourish the whole, not a private circle.
Read this hexagram in context
Question, Changing Line, Hexagram
A hexagram becomes useful when it returns to the question: what is changing, where the pressure sits, and what kind of action is actually available.
Related Reading
Questions This Hexagram Asks
Is Yi mainly a health reading?
Health and diet are important, but Yi also covers speech, information, livelihood, education, benefits, and care. Anything repeatedly taken in or given out can shape the outcome.
How do I know whether support is nourishing or enabling?
Sound support meets a real need while increasing steadiness, skill, or self-reliance. Enabling repeatedly rewards the damaging behavior, hides consequences, or makes the receiver less capable.
What does Yi advise about choosing work or income?
Look beyond the amount. Ask whether the source is honest, stable, and compatible with the person you want to become. Livelihood nourishes habits and relationships as well as the bank account.
Is Yi mainly a health reading?Open
Health and diet are important, but Yi also covers speech, information, livelihood, education, benefits, and care. Anything repeatedly taken in or given out can shape the outcome.
How do I know whether support is nourishing or enabling?Open
Sound support meets a real need while increasing steadiness, skill, or self-reliance. Enabling repeatedly rewards the damaging behavior, hides consequences, or makes the receiver less capable.
What does Yi advise about choosing work or income?Open
Look beyond the amount. Ask whether the source is honest, stable, and compatible with the person you want to become. Livelihood nourishes habits and relationships as well as the bank account.
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