Scryway

Hexagram 20

觀 Guān · Contemplation

Legge: Kwan

☴ Wind, wood (Xùn) above ☷ Earth (Kūn)

Scryway summary

Modern commentary written for Scryway. Not part of the classic text.

Looking, and being looked at. Examine your own life as an example others see.

The judgment

Kwan shows (how he whom it represents should be like) the worshipper who has washed his hands, but not (yet) presented his offerings;—with sincerity and an appearance of dignity (commanding reverent regard).

The image

(The trigram representing) the earth, and that for wind moving above it, form Kwan. The ancient kings, in accordance with this, examined the (different) regions (of the kingdom), to see the (ways of the) people, and set forth their instructions.

The lines, bottom to top

  1. Bottom line, broken

    The first line, divided, shows the looking of a lad;—not blamable in men of inferior rank, but matter for regret in superior men.

  2. Second line, broken

    The second line, divided, shows one peeping out from a door. It would be advantageous if it were (merely) the firm correctness of a female.

  3. Third line, broken

    The third line, divided, shows one looking at (the course of) his own life, to advance or recede (accordingly).

  4. Fourth line, broken

    The fourth line, divided, shows one contemplating the glory of the kingdom. It will be advantageous for him, being such as he is, (to seek) to be a guest of the king.

  5. Fifth line, solid

    The fifth line, undivided, shows its subject contemplating his own life(-course). A superior man, he will (thus) fall into no error.

  6. Top line, solid

    The sixth line, undivided, shows its subject contemplating his character to see if it be indeed that of a superior man. He will not fall into error.

Quoted from James Legge (trans.), The Yi King, Sacred Books of the East vol. XVI, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1882. Public domain. The image is from Legge’s Appendix II. Words in parentheses are Legge’s additions.