Hexagram 27: Nourishment
Yi · 頤
The Judgment
Steady attention to what you feed yourself—body and mind—brings good fortune. Watch what a person takes in and what they put out. That tells you everything about their character. The mouth works both ways: what you consume and what you speak.
The Image
Thunder beneath the mountain. The wise person speaks carefully and eats moderately. Both words and food are movements—one outward, one inward. Both require discipline. Character forms through controlling these basic exchanges.
山下有雷。君子因此「慎言語，節飲食」。說話是向外的動，吃喝是向內的動。兩樣都要節制。古人很實際——修養品性，就從管住嘴開始。其他的，往往是空談。
The Six Lines
You abandon your own resources to gaze enviously at others. The tortoise that lives on air needs nothing, yet you drop it to stare at someone's feast. This brings misfortune. You had independence; you traded it for longing.
Looking upward for nourishment, turning from your own path for sustenance. If you can't support yourself and depend on favors from above, something is wrong. This pattern leads to shame if continued.
Turning away from real nourishment toward what doesn't satisfy. From desire to gratification to desire again—the cycle of craving. Ten years of this leads nowhere. Complete waste.
Looking upward for provision—but from this position, this serves the greater good. Tiger-like intensity in seeking capable people. When you work for everyone rather than yourself, the hunger serves a purpose.
Aware of your own insufficiency. You should be providing but lack the strength. Turn from the usual path to seek help from someone wiser but less visible. Stay in place; don't attempt the great crossing.
The source of nourishment for others. Great responsibility comes with this position. Stay aware of the danger, and you can undertake even the most difficult ventures. Success and general benefit follow.
Artwork & Treatise
The Potato Eaters
Vincent van Gogh, 1885
Dutch peasants gather in lamplight around their evening meal—potatoes dug from fields they worked since dawn. Vincent van Gogh painted these figures in 1885 using earth tones and shadow, emphasizing the coarse hands that lift food to mouths. The faces are weathered, the room spare. Nothing decorative or refined appears; the painting insists on basic sustenance earned through labor. Steam rises from the dish of potatoes. One woman pours coffee. This is nourishment at its elemental level—fuel for bodies that must rise again tomorrow.
Zhou Dynasty diviners called this hexagram Yi (頤), meaning "corners of the mouth" or "jaws." The character depicts the lower face, emphasizing physical intake. Mountain (Gen) sits above Thunder (Zhen): stillness above, movement below—the mouth's structure (jaw holding still) enables eating (tongue and throat in motion). Ancient practitioners saw this configuration when questions of sustenance arose, both physical and spiritual. What feeds you? What do you feed? Van Gogh's peasants embody the hexagram's physical dimension, but the painting itself nourishes viewers through honest representation of labor's dignity.
{artwork_reasoning}
The Judgment text states: "Pay heed to the providing of nourishment and to what a man seeks to fill his own mouth with." The warning cuts two ways—what you consume matters, and what you offer others matters. Van Gogh wrote to his brother that these peasants "have honestly earned their food," distinguishing nourishment obtained through rightful effort from consumption divorced from production. Song Dynasty commentary on this hexagram distinguished between those who nourish themselves (earning their bread) and those who nourish others (teachers, rulers, parents). The painting captures the former; the act of painting serves the latter.
The Image Text offers counsel: "The superior person is careful of his words and temperate in eating and drinking." Moderation in intake applies to speech as to food—both enter through the mouth's corners. Van Gogh's peasants speak little in the painting; their nourishment is silent, concentrated, necessary. In the I-Ching's sequence, Nourishment follows Great Accumulating Force: after gathering strength (26), one must sustain it through proper feeding (27). The potatoes glow humble and sufficient under lamplight, offering what bodies need without excess or ornament—nourishment as fact rather than performance.
Yilin Verse
家給人足，頌聲並作。四夷賓服，干戈卷閣。
Jiao Yanshou's Forest of Changes (焦氏易林) — Unchanging verse for 頤 (Yí)
Character-by-Character Breakdown
Classical Chinese text with pinyin and English meanings