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Hexagram 33 — Yi, Nourishment
Chronological no. 33 (binary-weight order) · King Wen no. (traditional) 27 · 頤
By Anibal Edelberto Amiot — Updated October 1, 2026
the youngest son
the eldest son
Beneath the mountain, Thunder: the image of nourishment. Movement stirs at the base of what is stable, as the jaw stirs beneath the still face — a reminder that even the greatest stability depends on what nourishes it from below. Thus the noble one watches over his words and measures his food and drink: what enters us, through the mouth or through words, shapes what we become.
What nourishes the spirit stands opposed to what divides the views. Not all nourishment elevates equally: some words, some thoughts strengthen, others scatter and weaken. This line invites us to choose what feeds the mind with the same care we choose what feeds the body.
The six lines
At the base of the earth, fullness stirs: the yang onset that carried the whole figure now yields its place.
The receptive earth reaches its fullness: the silent welcome that carried the lower figure is about to assert itself.
At the threshold between earth and man, suppleness gathers weight: what once yielded by nature is about to harden.
In the listening of man, the hollow fills: the openness that received is about to assert itself.
At the sage's seat, emptiness fills: the suppleness that governed with discretion gathers a new force.
At the summit, fullness completes its course and breaks: what had culminated cannot go further without turning back.
Source: La Livrée d'Hermès, Anibal Amiot — chapter 7.1 (pp. 63–68). French version of this page.
For the notions used here — magic square, layer and casting, the Yi Jing — see the project lexicon.
The patterns of this hexagram
This hexagram is the binary complement of hexagram 30 — Da Guo, Preponderance of the Great (63 − 33 = 30): its patterns have exactly the same shape, only their colours are permuted. Here are the eight patterns of hexagram 30, one for each admissible family.
Bases — YANG mutant
Bases — YANG
Pair of two — YANG + YIN mutant
Pair of two — YIN mutant + YANG mutant
Pair of two — YIN + YANG
Pair of two — YIN + YANG mutant
Triple — without YANG
Triple — without YANG mutant
Neighbouring hexagrams
32 — Bo, Splitting Apart · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly
Hexagrams sharing a trigram
Same upper trigram (☶ Gen): 32 — Bo, Splitting Apart · 34 — Meng, Youthful Folly · 35 — Sun, Decrease · 36 — Gen, Keeping Still · 37 — Bi, Grace · 38 — Gu, Work on What Has Been Spoiled · 39 — Da Chu, The Taming Power of the Great
Same lower trigram (☳ Zhen): 1 — Fu, Return · 9 — Zhen, The Arousing · 17 — Zhun, Difficulty at the Beginning · 25 — Sui, Following · 41 — Shi He, Biting Through · 49 — Yi, Increase · 57 — Wu Wang, Innocence
