初九：舍尔灵龟，观我朵颐，凶。
Abandoning your own wisdom to stare at what others enjoy deepens dependency. Begin by recognizing the resources already available to you.
I Ching Hexagram 27
Yí · Nourishment
颐 · Hexagram 27
Yi begins with the mouth and nourishment: what you take into life and how you sustain yourself and others. Mountain above contains movement below. Both receiving and speaking require discernment, because worthwhile nourishment supports growth beyond immediate satisfaction.
Upper trigram: Mountain/Gèn
Lower trigram: Thunder/Zhèn
The situation you may be in
You may be spending energy on approval, information, or care from others while feeling increasingly depleted. Review what you receive and give, distinguishing real nourishment from things that only keep desire active.
How to respond
Care for daily essentials and choose reliable information and supportive relationships. Consider whether your words help, and use assistance to develop your own capacity rather than making dependence your only source of support.
Judgment and Image
Judgment
颐：贞吉。观颐，自求口实。
Nourishment. Perseverance brings good fortune. Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a person seeks to fill his own mouth with.
Image
山下有雷，颐；君子以慎言语，节饮食。
Thunder at the foot of the mountain: Nourishment. The superior person is careful of his words and temperate in eating and drinking.
Applying it to real life
Love & relationships
Notice whether care is mutual and whether giving has become persistently unequal. Express needs without making a partner your only emotional support or using care to obtain control.
Career & work
Seek work relationships that develop ability and preserve dignity. Guidance, feedback, and appropriate rest provide nourishment; repeated exhaustion in exchange for vague approval deserves reassessment.
Choice & decisions
Ask how a choice affects your long-term capacity and daily life, beyond immediate satisfaction. Examine both what you receive and what you will continually be supporting.
Timing & pace
Restore a sustainable everyday rhythm before taking on greater demands. Timing depends on the balance of support, need, and independence rather than a fixed period of rest.
The six changing lines
The lines unfold from the bottom upward, describing one pattern of change from its first appearance to its extreme. If your reading has a changing line, begin with that position.
六二：颠颐，拂经，于丘颐，征凶。
Seeking support from an unsuitable source can distort the relationship. Check whether the request is appropriate and whether the other person can carry it.
六三：拂颐，贞凶，十年勿用，无攸利。
Persistently feeding a harmful appetite drains ability and judgment. Stop sustaining the habit rather than waiting for it to become beneficial on its own.
六四：颠颐吉，虎视眈眈，其欲逐逐，无咎。
Actively seeking suitable resources can serve a responsibility to nourish others. Be focused about the need without turning determination into appropriation.
六五：拂经，居贞吉，不可涉大川。
Temporary reliance on someone capable can be appropriate. Recognize your present limits rather than independently attempting a task beyond your ability.
上九：由颐，厉吉，利涉大川。
Becoming a source of support for others brings substantial responsibility. Carry it with awareness rather than treating being needed as a reason for limitless exhaustion.
A common misreading
Yi is not merely a set of dietary rules and cannot diagnose health. It concerns nourishment and speech more broadly, including the loss of one's own capacity through envy of what others possess.
Related hexagrams
Text and interpretation
Updated 12 September 2026Reviewed by MysticEast Research
This page preserves the Chinese Judgment, Image, and line texts of the received Zhouyi. MysticEast's modern explanations are newly written to emphasize stages of change and practical judgment rather than fixed good-or-bad predictions.
Read the Zhouyi at the Chinese Text ProjectLet the hexagram meet your actual question
A guide gives you the map. A cast made with a clear question can help locate the exact stage of change you are experiencing.