頤 → 坤
Hexagram 27: Nourishment → Hexagram 2: The Receptive
Changing Lines
This transformation involves 2 changing lines (lines 1, 6).
Line 1
初九 舍爾靈龜。觀我朶頤。凶。
Nine at the beginning means: You let your magic tortoise go, And look at me with the corners of your mouth drooping. Misfortune.
Line 6
上九 由頤。厲吉。利涉大川。
Nine at the top means: The source of nourishment. Awareness of danger brings good fortune. It furthers one to cross the great water.
Trigram Changes
Yilin Verse
江河淮海，天之奧府。眾利所聚，賓服饒有。樂我君子。
Yangtze, Yellow River, Huai, and sea — heaven’s great storehouses. Where all profit gathers, guests submit and abundance overflows. How it delights our noble lord.
— Jiao Yanshou, Yilin (Forest of Changes), 1st century BCE
Commentary
Mountain over thunder opens toward earth's boundless receptivity. Rivers, the Huai, and the sea form heaven's deep treasury, where all profitable things converge. Guests submit in admiration, abundance overflows, and the gentleman rejoices. The Four Great Rivers — the Yangtze, Yellow River, Huai, and Ji — were the framework of China's sacred geography, representing the channels through which heaven's bounty reaches all people. Their convergence signals comprehensive nourishment, not of one locality but of the whole realm. From Nourishment to the Receptive, the transformation unfolds naturally: what the mouth carefully selects and cultivates, the earth receives and multiplies without limit. The mountain's discerning stillness becomes the plain's generous embrace, gathering wealth not by grasping but by opening wide.
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