頤Yi · Nourishment
In one sentence
The key question: what are you using to nourish yourself, and to nourish others?
A hexagram about eating, livelihood and providing for others, including the words that go out of your mouth and the things you take into your heart. Support yourself by legitimate means, and don't envy what is in someone else's bowl. Be careful in speech and moderate in eating and drinking. Walk the right road and there is good fortune.
Asking about work, love or money
- Work
- Look at what you live on: is the way this job feeds you a proper one, and what kind of person has it fed you into. Make your living by your own abilities, and do not envy other people's positions and pay. At work, watch your mouth: less gossip, fewer promises. If you have people under you whom you provide for, think about what you are feeding them.
- Love
- A relationship is also mutual nourishment: what do you feed the other person and what do they feed you, consideration and honest words, or complaints and fault-finding. Do not count on the other person to fill you up; first learn to nourish yourself well. Be careful how you speak, because hurtful words cannot be taken back once they are out. The same goes if you are single.
- Money
- Money goes first to feeding yourself and your family, and it must come from a proper source. Earn your own meal; do not stare at what is in other people's bowls, and do not live off others. Be moderate in food, clothing and daily spending, and do not spend out of appetite or to keep up with others. Living by an honest livelihood is good fortune in itself.
This is the hexagram as a whole. If your cast has changing lines, the line text governs; each line's page has its own reading for work, love and money.
The judgment
In plain wordsStay true and there is good fortune. Look at what a person nourishes, and then at what he relies on to feed himself.
The Tuan commentary
頤貞吉，養正則吉也。觀頤，觀其所養也；自求口實，觀其自養也。天地養萬物，聖人養賢，以及萬民；頤之時大矣哉！
"Yi. Staying true brings good fortune": to nourish what is correct brings good fortune. "Observe the nourishing": observe what one nourishes. "What one seeks to fill one's own mouth": observe how one nourishes oneself. Heaven and earth nourish all things. The sage nourishes the worthy, and so reaches the ten thousand people. Great indeed is the time of Yi!
The Tuan (“judgment”) commentary is one of the Ten Wings. It explains the hexagram name and the judgment from the two trigrams and the positions of the lines.
The image
山下有雷，頤。君子以慎言語，節飲食。
Thunder below the mountain: Yi (Nourishment). The noble one is careful in speech and moderate in eating and drinking.
The lines
Nine at the beginning
Text舍爾靈龜，觀我朵頤，凶。You put aside your sacred tortoise and watch my jaws at work. Misfortune.In plain wordsYou put aside your own sacred tortoise, which can live without eating, and watch me eating with cheeks bulging, your mouth watering. Misfortune. You had enough of your own, yet greed stirred and you envied others. More on this line →
Six in the second place
Text顛頤，拂經，于丘頤，征凶。Nourishment upside down, against the norm. Seeking nourishment from the hill: setting forth brings misfortune.In plain wordsTurning around to seek support from those below you goes against the normal order; seeking support from those on high, you go and meet misfortune. Neither is a place where you should be holding out your hand. More on this line →
Six in the third place
Text拂頤，貞凶。十年勿用，无攸利。Going against nourishment. Persisting brings misfortune. Do not act for ten years. Nothing is favorable.In plain wordsYou go against the right way of feeding yourself; even with reasons, it brings misfortune. Don't do this for ten years; there is no good in it at all. More on this line →
Six in the fourth place
Text顛頤，吉。虎視眈眈，其欲逐逐，无咎。Nourishment upside down. Good fortune. Glaring like a tiger, with desire pressing on and on. No blame.In plain wordsTurning around to ask help from those below you — good fortune, because it is not for yourself but to nourish more people. Be as focused as a tiger eyeing its prey, one after another without a break, and there is no blame. More on this line →
Six in the fifth place
Text拂經，居貞吉，不可涉大川。Against the norm. Staying put and staying true brings good fortune. One cannot cross the great river.In plain wordsAgainst the normal order: you are in a high position but cannot nourish others, and must rely instead on the worthy person above you. Settle down and stay true, and there is good fortune; but you cannot take on a major challenge. More on this line →
Nine at the top
Text由頤，厲吉，利涉大川。The source of nourishment. Danger, yet good fortune. It is favorable to cross the great river.In plain wordsEveryone depends on you for their nourishment. The position is high and the burden heavy; stay mindful of danger at every moment and there is good fortune. You can take on a major challenge. More on this line →
Lines are counted from the bottom. “Nine” is a yang (solid) line, “six” a yin (broken) line. A line applies to your reading only when it is a changing line.
Related hexagrams
Primary, resulting, nuclear, opposite and inverted hexagrams explained →
In the hexagram calendar
In the Tang monk Yixing’s Dayan calendar, Yi belongs to the third pentad of Major Snow, “Iris shoots appear” (December 17 to December 21, 2026).