Upper trigram
☶
Mountain (Gen) above
Stillness and limit.
FamilyYoungest son
ElementEarth
Hexagram 27 of 64
I Ching hexagram 27 ☶☳ Nourishment
I Ching hexagram 27, Nourishment, is mountain above, thunder below. In brief: what you take in, and what you say. Counting from the bottom, its solid lines sit in places 1 and 6 and its broken lines in 2, 3, 4 and 5.
- Lines, bottom up
- ⚊⚋⚋⚋⚋⚊ 100001 · 1 = solid
- Trigrams
- Mountain over Thunder Gen ☶ / Zhen ☳
- Every line changed
- № 28 Great Exceeding
- In Legge, 1882
- p. 114 Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16
Legge, The Yî King, 1882.
Lower trigram
☳
Thunder (Zhen) below
Arousal and shock.
FamilyEldest son
ElementWood
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What the text says, in plain terms
The Judgement and the Image of hexagram 27
The Judgement
Nourishment: look at what you feed yourself and others, in body and in mind. What someone chooses to nurture reveals their character.
The Image
Thunder beneath a mountain, like a moving jaw. The lesson is to be careful with words and moderate in eating and drinking.
A summary of meaning written for this site, not a translation — James Legge’s 1882 translation of the full text follows below. How the Judgement and the Image are read, and which translations to use →
Primary source
Hexagram 27 in James Legge’s translation
“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.”
“(The trigram representing) a mountain and under it that for thunder form Î. The superior man, in accordance with this, (enjoins) watchfulness over our words, and the temperate regulation of our eating and drinking.”
The lines
- Line 1 · bottom The first line, undivided, (seems to be thus addressed), ‘You leave your efficacious tortoise, and look at me till your lower jaw hangs down.’ There will be evil.
- Line 2 The second line, divided, shows one looking downwards for nourishment, which is contrary to what is proper; or seeking it from the height (above), advance towards which will lead to evil.
- Line 3 The third line, divided, shows one acting contrary to the method of nourishing. However firm he may be, there will be evil. For ten years let him not take any action, (for) it will not be in any way advantageous.
- Line 4 The fourth line, divided, shows one looking downwards for (the power to) nourish. There will be good fortune. Looking with a tiger’s downward unwavering glare, and with his desire that impels him to spring after spring, he will fall into no error.
- Line 5 The fifth line, divided, shows one acting contrary to what is regular and proper; but if he abide in firmness, there will be good fortune. He should not, (however, try to) cross the great stream.
- Line 6 · top The sixth line, undivided, shows him from whom comes the nourishing. His position is perilous, but there will be good fortune. It will be advantageous to cross the great stream.
James Legge, trans., The Yî King, The Sacred Books of the East, vol. 16 (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1882), p. 114 — read the original text.
Words in parentheses are Legge’s own: in his preface he explains that they supply what the original writer left unsaid. “Undivided” and “divided” are his terms for yang and yin lines, counted from the bottom. The Image comes from the second appendix of the book, the Treatise on the Symbolism.
Nourishment for a decision
Ask what this choice nourishes — in you and in the people affected. Choose what sustains over what merely tempts.
I Ching 27 in love and relationships
Care, feeding and support. Balanced giving and receiving keep a relationship healthy.
Hexagram 27 at work
Health, food, education and caring professions. Also a reminder to watch what you consume — information included.
The six lines of hexagram 27
Read from the bottom up. This figure runs yang yin yin yin yin yang — what each position means.
2 yang and 4 yin lines. Three of the six stand in their proper place, and the pairs 1–4 and 3–6 answer.
What the two trigrams do to each other
Inner and outer
Thunder below — arousal and shock — is the private, inner side of hexagram 27.
Mountain above — stillness and limit — is the world that side meets.
The five-element relation
Wood below controls Earth above. The inner position restrains the outer, which reads as holding back circumstance rather than being carried by it.
Read as a family
The youngest son sits above and the eldest son below. Two brothers, the younger one on top — siblings rather than parent and child, with the junior one taking the lead.
Calculated from the lines
Hexagrams connected to hexagram 27
Nuclear hexagram
2 · The Receptive
What is happening beneath the surface.
Lines 2–4 give Kun (Earth) as the lower trigram, lines 3–5 give Kun (Earth) as the upper.
Opposite hexagram
28 · Great Exceeding
The situation turned inside out.
Change all six lines and Mountain over Thunder becomes Lake over Wind.
Inverse hexagram
Symmetrical
Hexagram 27 reads the same upside down: Mountain over Thunder, turned over, is still Mountain over Thunder. Only eight of the sixty-four do.
None of these are assigned by an author — each follows from the arrangement of lines.
The image
Mountain above, Thunder below.
Mountain over Thunder: stillness and limit meeting arousal and shock.
Sources
Statements of fact on this page were checked against these sources in October 2026. How we choose and check sources: editorial policy.
Cite this page
AstroHot. “I Ching Hexagram 27: Nourishment.” Accessed October 27, 2026. https://astrohot.com/i-ching/hexagram/27/
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