What's your take on the four inner lines of Hex 27? They all talk about rejecting or overturning standards - what's that about? In terms of nourishment, I mean. I mean, if the hexagram is an image of an open mouth with the outer lines as jaws or teeth, then the inner lines would be either the cavity that admits nourishment, or the nourishment itself that is passing into the mouth. So why does every inner line of 27 talk about rejecting or overturning standards of some sort? I don't get it. Logically, I can see only one answer to this: the two outer lines don't represent just jaws, they represent actual nourishment, actuall feeding - 27.1 is inferior, and 27.6 is fortunate, although dangerous. That would mean that the yin lines mean the opposite, which is 'not feeding'. Whatcha think?

I think hex. 27 makes a whole lot more sense if you translate 頤 with Hunger, instead of Nourishment. The mouth that the hexagram pictures, is a hungry mouth, it wants something it desires. Hunger stands for desire.

I see 27 as more about necessity than desire, what is actually needed for life sustenance of all kinds. I note it often turns up with money related questions. These middle lines point to alternative ways to finding what 'feeds' you - alternative ways with varying degrees of danger and success. But yes, none of the lines point to being 'well fed' or successful nourishment exactly do they ?

Hunger, nourishment - how about appetite?

1 denying appetite (anorexia)
2 exotic appetite (sushi)
3 unwholesome appetite (smoking)
4 satisfying appetite (shopping)
5 dependent appetite (begging)
6 feeding appetite (providing)

After I posted the above, out of curiosity I checked out Brad's 27. He uses "appetite" quite a bit.

IC+ 27 is labelled 'hungering'. it covers the 'new', the infrastructure and what furnishings to use (and that includes brain food)

The 24-ness of 27 covers what 27 begins with, keeps coming back to, and that is described by XOR-ing line 1 to give us 23.

23 covers removing chaff from wheat, stripping back to basics and bringing out the 'true' perspective - all reflecting the overall focus on pruning (preparation for future development), quality control etc. Combined with the 27 focus on infrastructure brings out the need for being careful what you take in.

The generic form of 27 covers this focus on infrastructure and so its use in Xoring with other hexagrams to identify the 'infrastructure' of such, the 27-ness of such.

the 27-ness of 27 is 02 - covers the realm of potentials where 27 is one of many. (any hexagram XORed with itself will give us the pool of potentials as represented by 02)

the 07-ness relates to Xoring line position 2. and so the properties of 07 expressed through 27 are described by analogy to 41. How does 27 express uniforming? through a focus on concentration, distillation (and so more focus on quality control)

The 15-ness of 27 relates to Xoring line position 3 and so the properties of 15 expressed through 27 are described by analogy to 22. The levelling out of 15 is expressed in 27 by a focus on external appearance, gloss over, facade - the characteristics of 22.

The 16-ness of 27 relates to Xoring line position 4 and so the properties of 16 expressed through 27 as described by analogy to 21. Thus a focus on foresight, planning, expectations etc is expressed through laying down rules, problem solving. Set down rules at the beginning and all follows.

The 08-ness of 27 relates to Xoring line position 5 and so the properties of 08 expressed through 27 as described by analogy to 42. The focus here is on 'passive' leadership, how does the 'court' behave and the focus here is on augmentation, the quality control focus on the new 'lifts' things.

The 23-ness of 27 related to Xoring line position 6 and so the properties of 23 expressed through 27 as described by analogy to 24. the focus here on returning, coming back to the 'true' path and in so doing 'prune'.

The six line focus on hexagrams cover 6 of the 64 aspects of 27 derivable from XORing.

I think it makes some kind of sense to think of it literally as 'Jaws' - the whole framework for nourishment. The inner lines are a bit like the interior of a pupa: the ways of receiving and processing nourishment are changing. Wu Jing Nuan translates jing (canon, warp threads, principles etc) as 'channels' through which energy circulates in the body.

The upper trigram being Gen signifies something stable, not moving, therefore symbolicly connected to the upper jaw while the lower trigram Zhen signifies movement so the lower jaw which actually moves when chewing.

Also nourishment also includes by words.

Togan

hilary said:

I think it makes some kind of sense to think of it literally as 'Jaws' - the whole framework for nourishment. The inner lines are a bit like the interior of a pupa: the ways of receiving and processing nourishment are changing.

Click to expand...

Yes, but why do all of the inner lines, the yin lines, image the change you talk about? Nourishment is about making what's 'outer' into 'inner'. So, why do you think the inner lines of 27 all talk about rejecting and overturning something? It would make more sense to me if those lines described different ways of making what's 'outer' into what's 'inner'.

Actually, in line 4 there is no rejection, and in line 1 there is.

顛 (first character in lines 2 and 4) can mean:
summit, top, peak, highest spot / fall, tumble, topple, overturn, invert, upside-down

Since "inverted nourishment," "inverted hunger," "overturning nourishment" and "overturning hunger" don't make much sense, and "hunger is at its top" does, I vote for the latter. These are situations in lines 2 and 4 where hunger/desire/need is felt as being very strong, one cannot take much more.

In line 2, this is the result of "rejecting the customary," of rejecting what usually did or does satisfy the hunger.

In line 4, it makes one, like a tiger, chase something that will satisfy the hunger.

dobro said:

Yes, but why do all of the inner lines, the yin lines, image the change you talk about? Nourishment is about making what's 'outer' into 'inner'. So, why do you think the inner lines of 27 all talk about rejecting and overturning something? It would make more sense to me if those lines described different ways of making what's 'outer' into what's 'inner'.

Click to expand...

The trigrams show us:

Mountain in UPPER - that covers discernment (if it was lower then it would cover block/stop/self-restraint. when we put it in upper so these traits are doubled and made proactive - we USE blockage to our benefit in the form of discernment - we gain strength/value from our suffering)

Thunder in LOWER - that covers new moments, enlightenment (Even if 'crap' - enlightenment is not some universal 'good' in that it covers the 'a-ha' that is found later to be false)

The focus overall is on quality control of the 'new' and so being wary about what you put into your body, how you fill-in the infrastructure. There will therefore be a STRONG focus on issues of rejection.

27 pairs with 24 and its focus on a beginning that includes 'new' as it does a return to the 'true' path (AGAIN a focus on quality but here it is unconditional, in 27 we get conditional, picky even of 'general' quality as we focus on the particular)

Since we are setting down foundations, infrastructure, it is essential that we put into that infrastructure 'quality' stuff, else it is a waste of time and energy.

I would suggest that, the Duke of Chou (or whatever committee came up with the comments!) being aware of the association of the 'negative' with yin and the issues of quality control would bring out issues of rejection (emotionally rejection is one of the emotions associated with yin-foundation meanings, whereas acceptance is associated with yang-foundation meanings)

If we analyse the line orderings we have a yang line (acceptance) followed by four yin lines (rejection) and a final yang line (acceptance). As such we open to acceptance, reject most offerings to finally 'close' on a good one.

If we strip back to core qualities we have a focus on BINDING, on sharing of time. The difference between wind and thunder is wind covers time in the context of cultivation etc (or neglect and so corruptions) whereas thunder covers beginnings.

On top of this Binding focus we have a symbol of BONDING, and so the sharing of space. This is contractive bonding (as compared to lake that is expansive bonding).

Mountain in its upper position brings out the sharing of space with a lost love or a love never fulfilled - mountain/lake overall cover the concept of passion.

The sharing of space in such a state is where we learn from our lost loves etc quality control. This mountain contains the emotion of grief/sadness that, when we make it to our benefit, when we become proactive, so we transform the grief into discernment.

Since we move from general to particular, bottom to top, the top trigram is seen to be operating WITHIN a context set by the bottom one.

dobro said:

Yes, but why do all of the inner lines, the yin lines, image the change you talk about? Nourishment is about making what's 'outer' into 'inner'. So, why do you think the inner lines of 27 all talk about rejecting and overturning something? It would make more sense to me if those lines described different ways of making what's 'outer' into what's 'inner'.

Click to expand...

Hm. It's immensely logical to say that nourishment's about turning outer into inner. But the hexagram (which isn't strictly speaking called 'Nourishment') seems to be talking about the whole system and its effects in both directions. If the Judgement says something like -

'Look at the jaws,
And the origin of your quest to fill your mouth.'

- then you are looking (from the outside) at the jaws for an (inner) origin of an (outer) quest. I reckon one thing you're invited to contemplate here is how your inner desires affect your outer behaviour.

And when it comes to the Image (whose authors, I think, had a pretty good idea of what the lines were all about), there's a picture of a cycle of influence: the words you send out in conversation, what you 'swallow' in eating and drinking. (If I had to guess, I'd say they might have been looking at line 6.) Maybe what you send out comes back to you, like thunder echoing under the mountain.

Just for a little visual inspiration...



L

"Jaws" is also about an attitude.

Yí zhi, literally 'point with the cheeks/jaws', means being bossy: to signify one's intentions to subordinates by twisting the cheeks.
Yí shén, jaw spirit: to rest one's mind, to have a mental relaxation.

LiSe

heylise said:

"Jaws" is also about an attitude.

Yí zhi, literally 'point with the cheeks/jaws', means being bossy: to signify one's intentions to subordinates by twisting the cheeks.

Click to expand...

You mean this is the Hip-Hop hexagram? Now I can imagine every rapper tattooing this hexagram somewhere on their bodies... Just wait until this point of view gets out there...

L

BTW, in case there are any Pedro Almodóvar movie fans here and speaking of Yi tattoos, there is a character in the movie "Bad education" that has a Tai hexagram tattooed in the small of his back. In my defense, although I don't pay much attention to men butts, that tattoo was mesmerizing...

L

Thanks for weighing in everyone, it's been useful. This bit by Chris turned out to make the most sense to me:

lightofreason said:

The focus overall is on quality control of the 'new' and so being wary about what you put into your body, how you fill-in the infrastructure. There will therefore be a STRONG focus on issues of rejection.

Click to expand...

It made the most sense because it encapsulates the idea in 27's main text, that of giving attention to your search for something substantial to nourish yourself on. Like Chris says, that's as much a matter of discerning what *not* to take in as it is a matter of knowing what's good to eat.

This also helps me with the 27/28 pair. Up until now, I've seen the continuum between them to be one of dealing with 'what's beyond' - 27 in the sense of taking what's beyond you into you, and 28 in the sense of moving beyond the present critical mass. Now, I'm thinking there might be a quality vs quantity issue in these two hexagrams - 27 is concerned with the quality of the nourishment and 28 is concerned with a quantity issue (the critical mass thing I mentioned just now).

Cheers, all.

Given the focus on infrastructure combined with the warning re quality control, now XOR 27 with all of the other hexagrams to identify how they express the same qualities.

e.g.
27 XOR 28 = 01 (100001 XOR 011110 = 111111)
27 XOR 01 = 28 (100001 XOR 111111 = 011110)

The infrastructure, 27-ness, of 28 is described by analogy to 01 - lots of yang (over full)
The infrastructure, 27-ness, of 01 is described by analogy to 28 - excess yang
etc etc

The 27-ness of 27 is 02 (02 being the pool of potentials that are expressed, actualised, when we convert yin into yang. Thus the 27-ness of 02 is 27, we bring out the actual hidden in the pool)