I Ching hexagram guide
Hexagram 27: The Corners of the Mouth
Yi / 颐 · Mountain over Thunder
Hexagram 27 Yi, Nourishment, asks what feeds the body, mind, income, speech, and people around you. What enters and leaves the mouth shapes the person and the system. The hexagram looks like a mouth: firm lips outside, hollow space inside.
Intro
In short
Hexagram 27 Yi, Nourishment, asks what feeds the body, mind, income, speech, and people around you. What enters and leaves the mouth shapes the person and the system.
Meaning The hexagram looks like a mouth: firm lips outside, hollow space inside. It is about food, livelihood, language, education, supply, media, and moral cultivation.
How to read it
Look at what you consume, what you say, what supports your daily bowl, and whom you are feeding. Nourishment becomes good only when it feeds the right thing in the right way.
Judgment
In short
Constancy is auspicious when nourishment is proper. Observe what is being nourished and how the mouth is being filled.
Meaning To read Yi, ask three questions: what do I feed, what feeds me, and what do I take in? The wrong object or wrong source turns support into harm.
How to read it
Check diet, business model, income, study, household support, and speech habits. Feeding the wrong thing makes imbalance stronger.
Tuan Commentary (classical comment on the Judgment)
In short
Heaven and Earth nourish all beings, and sages nourish the worthy so the people can be nourished.
Meaning Nourishment is never only private. Families, companies, schools, and states are judged by who receives resources, who grows, and what standards guide growth.
How to read it
Review the nourishment system: talent, workers, children, health, education, and basic supply. True nourishment gives each life its proper support.
Image
In short
Thunder under the Mountain teaches careful speech and measured food.
Meaning The mouth can nourish and harm. Words leave through it; food and influence enter through it. Careless speech and unmeasured intake both create damage.
How to read it
Speak less harm, eat less harm, consume less harmful media, and issue fewer careless commands. Governing the mouth prevents many troubles.
Divination Note
In short
Yi often concerns health, food, speech, education, livelihood, business models, supply lines, and patterns of dependence.
Meaning It can point to food business, household support, illness from disorderly intake, speech leaks, unstable income, dependency, or a need to choose better learning and media.
How to read it
Review sustainable income, family support, diet, language, study materials, and supply. Choose what nourishes body and character; cut what feeds greed, dependency, or careless talk.
First Line
In short
Leaving your sacred tortoise to watch my moving jaws: abandoning self-sufficiency for appetite is unfortunate.
Meaning Do not trade your own craft, clarity, or inner guidance for quick gain or envy.
How to read it
Return to what already nourishes you; stop comparing your hunger to another person's mouth.
Second Line
In short
Reversed nourishment violates the rule: support is being sought from the wrong direction.
Meaning Adjust finances and dependency.
How to read it
Ask the proper person or source, not the tempting one.
Third Line
In short
Contrary nourishment is deeply wrong and cannot be used for long.
Meaning Stop living from manipulation, unhealthy subsidy, or greed.
How to read it
Before adding more support, cut what corrupts appetite.
Fourth Line
In short
Reversed nourishment can be good when resources are gathered from below to feed the whole.
Meaning Managers and caretakers may centralize, but only to serve.
How to read it
Feed the base back.
Fifth Line
In short
Contrary to the usual rule, remain upright and do not cross the great river.
Meaning You may have position but not enough capacity.
How to read it
Use specialists, keep the core, and avoid large risky expansion.
Top Line
In short
Nourishment comes through you: many depend on your platform, supply, teaching, or advice.
Meaning This can cross danger if held with fear and care.
How to read it
The more others depend on you, the more restrained you must be.
The Corners of the Mouth: Reading Guide
Yi asks what enters the mouth, what leaves the mouth, and what kind of life those habits are feeding.
Watch What Feeds Life
Yi is about nourishment, but not only food. Speech feeds or damages a relationship. Money feeds a household or corrupts it. Media, habits, appetite, and dependence all shape the person being formed. What one seeks to fill the mouth reveals the direction of cultivation.
Questions to Bring
- What am I feeding, and what is feeding me? - Are my words nourishing or consuming the situation? - Where has appetite replaced genuine need?
Daily Ethics, Not Theory
Yi fits diet, health, speech, teaching, parenting, income, information habits, and dependency. Be careful with words and moderate with intake. The point is not purity theater; it is noticing what slowly builds the body, the mind, the family, and the team.
Read Alongside
Jing is the shared source that nourishes many. Yi is the mouth and habit that receive and give nourishment. Dui turns the mouth toward speech and pleasure. Yi asks whether the mouth is disciplined enough to nourish.
Reading Questions
What does Yi ask me to examine first?
The source of nourishment: food, speech, money, information, dependence, and habit. What feeds you is slowly making you.
How does Yi apply to speech?
Words can nourish trust or consume it. Under Yi, a clever mouth is not enough; the question is whether speech feeds the situation well.
How should Yi be read for work or money?
Ask what the work lives on and what it is feeding in people. Crooked income, bad information, or unhealthy habits inside a team will eventually show.
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