Hexagram 27 as yes or no
Hexagram 27 Jaws / Nourishment as a yes-or-no answer
Yi answers a yes-or-no question by asking what the step would feed and whom it would take from. The judgment's good fortune is conditional — 'steadiness brings good fortune' — and the condition is that the nourishing is correct: right source, direction and measure. If the step feeds something worth feeding and does not grasp at what belongs to another, the hexagram is willing. If it is driven by appetite, it is not.
The lines answer very differently from bottom to top. Lines one, two and three are all 'no': stop coveting, stop seeking in the wrong place, stop altogether. Line four is 'yes, if you are gathering in order to give'. Line five is 'hold your place, lean on your helper, and do not attempt the big move'. Only the top line says 'cross the great river' — and it says it to someone who has accepted that others depend on them. A changing line in the lower trigram therefore almost always means no; in the upper trigram, the answer turns on responsibility rather than desire.
The hexagram in brief
Thunder at the foot of the mountain, in the shape of open jaws: nourishment. Correct nourishing brings good fortune — watch what you feed yourself and others, and what comes out of your mouth.
Be careful with words and with what you consume; nourish the worthy, and seek your own sustenance honestly.
The judgment
頤：貞吉。觀頤，自求口實。Î indicates that with firm correctness there will be good fortune (in what is denoted by it). We must look at what we are seeking to nourish, and by the exercise of our thoughts seek for the proper aliment.
Which line changed?
A changing line sharpens the answer. Each line of 頤 Jaws / Nourishment has its own page:
- 初九Nine at the beginningthe spirit tortoise · envy · self-sufficiency lost
- 六二Six in the second placeupside-down seeking · no proper partner · losing one's kind
- 六三Six in the third placeagainst nourishment · ten years · the way reversed
- 六四Six in the fourth placetiger's gaze · nourishing others · focused desire
- 六五Six in the fifth placedependent ruler · stay put · do not cross the river
- 上九Nine at the topsource of nourishment · heavy charge · great cause for joy
The same hexagram for
Questions
- Does hexagram 27, Jaws / Nourishment, mean yes or no?
- Yi answers a yes-or-no question by asking what the step would feed and whom it would take from. The judgment's good fortune is conditional — 'steadiness brings good fortune' — and the condition is that the nourishing is correct: right source, direction and measure. If the step feeds something worth feeding and does not grasp at what belongs to another, the hexagram is willing. If it is driven by appetite, it is not.
- What does Hexagram 27, 頤 Jaws / Nourishment, mean?
- Thunder at the foot of the mountain, in the shape of open jaws: nourishment. Correct nourishing brings good fortune — watch what you feed yourself and others, and what comes out of your mouth.
Chinese text: the received Zhouyi (Wuyingdian lineage). English: James Legge, The Yî King, Sacred Books of the East XVI, 1882 (public domain).