What this hexagram is about
Above and below like the open mouth — the image of nourishment and care. Guard your words to nourish virtue, temper your eating to nourish the body; nourish yourself, and learn too to nourish others.
The Judgment 卦辞
颐，贞吉。观颐，自求口实。
Perseverance brings good fortune. Observe what nourishes — and how one seeks to fill one's own mouth.
The Image 大象传
《象》曰：山下有雷，颐；君子以慎言语，节饮食。
Thunder below the mountain; so the noble person is careful in speech and temperate in eating and drinking.
Commentary on the Lines 小象传
观我朵颐，亦不足贵也。
Watching me let my jaws droop with longing — this too is hardly worthy of esteem.
The Six Lines (hover over the figure above)
Six at the top由颐，厉吉，利涉大川。
All under Heaven looks to him for nourishment — he takes up the charge of sustaining the world; though there is danger, the end is good fortune, and it is fitting to cross the great river and achieve great things.
Six in the fifth place拂经，居贞吉，不可涉大川。
Though it departs from the common way, to dwell at ease and hold to the right brings good fortune; but one must not rashly cross the great river and its perils.
Nine in the fourth place颠颐，吉。虎视眈眈，其欲逐逐，无咎。
To seek nourishment from the worthy below — the high sustaining the low, drawing able people near — good fortune. Watching with a tiger's steady gaze, the wish to give nourishment following unbroken, there is no fault.
Nine in the third place拂颐，贞凶，十年勿用，无攸利。
To go against the right way of nourishment; to keep to this brings misfortune, and for ten years one can do nothing — nothing whatever to gain.
Six in the second place颠颐，拂经，于丘颐，征凶。
To invert the way of nourishment against all reason — seeking sustenance below from the wrong source, then clinging upward to high place for food; to go on so brings misfortune.
Initial Six舍尔灵龟，观我朵颐，凶。
To cast aside the inner sustenance you hold, like a sacred tortoise that needs no food, and gaze enviously as I feast — unable to nourish yourself, you covet another's — misfortune.