Every day we receive information, learn methods, seek support, and influence others through words and actions. Nourishment develops from images of the mouth and feeding, asking both how we are sustained and how we take responsibility for sustaining others. This article mainly applies it to information and learning; it does not prescribe diets, nutrition plans, or treatment.
Identifying the hexagram
Yí is hexagram 27 in the traditional King Wen sequence, with the symbol ䷚. Its lower trigram is Zhen ☳ and its upper trigram is Gen ☶; their traditional images are thunder and mountain, respectively. Count the lines from the bottom: 初九, 六二, 六三, 六四, 六五, 上九. A solid line is yang and a broken line is yin. Nine and six in the line headings identify yang and yin; they do not indicate additional lines.
The six lines are numbered from the bottom upward; the figure below displays their actual positions from top to bottom.
━━━━━━ 上九
━━ ━━ 六五
━━ ━━ 六四
━━ ━━ 六三
━━ ━━ 六二
━━━━━━ 初九
Hexagram statement
頤：貞吉。觀頤，自求口實。
Editorial rendering: Nourishment: right constancy brings good fortune. Observe nourishment and how one seeks what fills the mouth.
Legge understands yi as nourishment and explains that it may concern body or mind, oneself or others. Observing nourishment and seeking what fills the mouth require examining both what is nourished and how it is obtained, not merely whether one receives enough.
Contemporary learning can begin with the quality of inputs: which materials truly help understanding, and which merely fuel comparison or anxiety? How support is received matters too; assistance should not come at the cost of losing judgment or harming others.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
Interpretation in the Ten Wings
The Commentary on the Judgment (Tuan zhuan) and the Commentary on the Images (Xiang zhuan) belong to the Yi zhuan, the commentaries commonly called the Ten Wings. Their interpretations are kept separate below from the hexagram and line statements, followed by applications for contemporary learning.
The Commentary on the Judgment distinguishes what is nourished from how one nourishes oneself. The Commentary on the Images uses thunder beneath the mountain and says “慎言语，节饮食”: be careful in speech and moderate in food and drink. This is traditional language of self-cultivation, not a modern, validated health guide.
This article uses care in speech to reflect on outputs: before relaying a message or giving advice, how much do you understand, what supports it, and how might the listener use it? Nourishment thus also includes responsibility for influence.
[zhouyi-27; hon-sep]
Six lines, from bottom to top
The quotations below are line statements; the explanations that follow are original learning commentary. Good fortune, no blame, and regret belong to ancient divinatory language and cannot be turned directly into guarantees about an individual’s future.
初九 · Do not focus only on what others possess
舍爾靈龜，觀我朵頤，凶。
Editorial rendering: You abandon your sacred tortoise and watch my moving jaws. Misfortune.
The sacred tortoise and moving jaws create an image of abandoning one’s own resource to covet another’s. Legge’s translation preserves that contrast.
If you keep collecting others’ achievements but seldom use what you already know, first complete one exercise of your own. Comparison can provide information, but it can also make you forget the resources actually available now.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
六二 · Examine the route through which support reaches you
顛頤，拂經，于丘頤，征凶。
Editorial rendering: Inverted nourishment, departing from the regular course and seeking nourishment on the height: advancing brings misfortune.
This line involves reversal, departure from the usual course, and seeking nourishment above. Legge interprets an unsuitable direction of seeking support through line positions, not actual geographic locations favorable to the reader.
Ask whether the help you rely on is suitable: can the other person provide it, are the conditions clear, and is someone carrying an unreasonable long-term burden? Needing help is not itself shameful.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
六三 · An unsuitable method does not improve simply through persistence
拂頤，貞凶，十年勿用，无攸利。
Editorial rendering: Departing from nourishment’s proper way: even with right constancy, misfortune. Do not use this for ten years; nothing is beneficial.
Legge reads this as violating the way of nourishment, with a warning against holding to it unchanged. Ten years expresses a severe, long-term admonition, not a prediction of personal destiny.
If an information source repeatedly misleads, long use is no reason to keep trusting it. Pause your reliance, look for original materials, and judge again. This does not mean stopping food intake or any healthcare.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
六四 · Seeking outside help can serve wider responsibility
顛頤吉，虎視眈眈，其欲逐逐，无咎。
Editorial rendering: Inverted nourishment brings good fortune. A tiger watches intently, its desire pressing on. No blame.
Inverted nourishment appears again, but with a different outcome from the second six. Legge sees the fourth six as a provider seriously seeking help from below, retaining the tiger’s concentrated gaze.
Someone organizing learning materials may also ask a person who truly understands a particular detail. Need and responsibility matter, not an assumption that asking for help always lowers one’s status. The tiger image does not endorse intimidating others.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
六五 · Acknowledge the limits of what you can undertake
拂經，居貞吉，不可涉大川。
Editorial rendering: Departing from the regular course, abiding in right constancy brings good fortune. One must not cross the great river.
Legge reads this as relying on stronger support while remaining steadfast, yet not undertaking the most difficult action. Support and limits appear together.
When beginning to help others, first do what lies within your ability. Referring questions needing further verification to a suitable person is more responsible than forcing yourself to give every answer.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
上九 · Becoming a source of support brings greater responsibility
由頤，厲吉，利涉大川。
Editorial rendering: The source of nourishment: danger and good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river.
The source of nourishment points to the person from whom support comes. Legge stresses responsibility comparable to that of a teacher or elder, so danger remains alongside good fortune.
If many people rely on information you provide, verify it carefully, state its limits, and allow correction. Having influence does not require carrying everything alone, nor does goodwill entitle you to demand that others surrender their choices.
[zhouyi-27; legge1882-27]
Building a reading list that actually supports learning
Original contemporary scenario
The following contemporary scenario was created for learning.
A reader has joined many information groups and receives numerous articles daily, yet finds it harder to say what she has learned. She first chooses a specific question and separates sources into primary materials, commentary, and unverified retellings.
She reduces duplicate messages, reads several core sources herself, and writes a paragraph explaining her understanding in her own words. Before sharing, she clearly identifies uncertainties and references instead of forwarding everything to appear knowledgeable.
Here, Nourishment helps examine both input and output. More information is not necessarily more nourishing, and influencing others does not end with passing something along.
Common misreadings
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Nourishment is not dieting, nutritional diagnosis, or medical advice. The ancient instruction to moderate food and drink cannot directly determine modern dietary restrictions or treatment.
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Relying on help is not a moral failing, and providing it creates no right to control others. A hexagram cannot grade a person’s dependence, worth, or health.
Three practices
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Choose a regularly used information source and check whether it recently helped you understand a specific question.
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Before sharing, distinguish facts, your interpretation, and unverified parts.
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State the support you can provide and the questions requiring someone better suited to handle them.
Related reading
Great Accumulation (hexagram-26)
Great Accumulation asks how to build and use ability; Nourishment asks where that accumulation comes from and how it affects you and others. Even when you can store many things, you still need to know what deserves absorbing and passing on.
Closing question
When reading Nourishment, ask: what understanding and behavior are being cultivated by the things entering and leaving my life each day?
Sources
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legge1882-27: The Yî King — Hexagram 27, chapter XXVII, judgement, six lines and notes
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unicode-hexagrams: Yijing Hexagram Symbols — U+4DC0–U+4DFF
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legge-scan-rights: Sacred Books of the East volume16 scan metadata
Classical quotations retain the Chinese source’s character forms and modern punctuation. The commentary is translated from original Simplified Chinese learning prose. The historical English source and received Chinese text are used together, and interpretations by later translators are attributed in the article. This article is not a basis for medical, investment, or other professional decisions.