Yí · Nourishment
Upper trigram: ☶ Mountain · lower trigram: ☳ Thunder
Watch over what nourishes you, in body and in spirit, and over the words that leave your mouth.
The ancient character draws the outline of a wide-open mouth, showing the fixed upper and mobile lower jaws, ready to chew food. It symbolises the sustenance of life at every level — biological metabolism, but also the way an individual nourishes their mind and chooses the words or ideas they send out into the world.
The analysis of needs and dependencies
This hexagram corresponds to a phase of assessing your lacks and your desires. The situation invites you to observe attentively what you take in (food, relationships, information) and the way you provide for your needs. It is the moment to identify your material or emotional dependencies and to check whether they are healthy or destructive.
Master one's impulses and watch over the justness of exchanges
The strategy demands great ethical and dietary vigilance. The Accomplished Being must "moderate their words and regulate their food". Do not be driven by the frenzy of lack (the attitude of the watching tiger). See to it that your subsistence is the fruit of honest work, and that what you offer others is nourishment of quality, conducive to their own growth.
Energetically, the figure is formed by the trigram of Thunder (Zhen, the movement of the lower jaw) below, and the trigram of the Mountain (Gen, the stillness of the upper jaw) above. The two solid lines at the extremities frame an empty space at the centre, accentuating the visual analogy with the mouth. The challenge is to find the right cadence between need and measure.
Each line is read only if it is changing in your cast. A changing line transforms the figure: the link under each text shows which hexagram it leads to.
Three-coin or yarrow-stalk cast, changing lines, outlook figure — computed on your device, no account.