Guan: wind over earth, seeing and being seen

Wind over the earth: two yang lines on top of four yin

Guan (觀) is the 20th hexagram: Kun (earth) below, Xun (wind) above. The top two lines, line five and the top line, are yang; the four below are all yin. The Shuo Gua says "Xun is entering" and "Kun is yielding": wind slips into every crevice, and the earth yields as it carries everything. Wind passing over the ground is the image of this hexagram.

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Guan and its nuclear hexagram Bo: the two yang lines shrink to a single one at the top.

Four yin lines below and two yang lines above look like a crowd with their heads tilted back, watching the two at the top. That layout is what the Commentary on the Judgments describes first.

The judgment: hands washed, offering not yet made

The judgment of Guan is only a few words:

Hands washed, offering not yet made; there is trust, solemn and looking up.

To wash is to wash the hands before a sacrifice, to offer is to present the sacrificial food, trust is good faith, and the last phrase is traditionally read as a solemn look turned upward. Read through, the judgment stands between two steps of a rite: the hands have been washed, the food has not yet been set out. Tradition usually takes it this way: the gravest moment is the opening one, and those who watch are convinced by that point.

The Commentary on the Judgments reads the judgment into the figure:

A great sight stands above. Yielding, and entering gently; central and upright, it looks over the world. Guan: "hands washed, offering not yet made; there is trust, solemn and looking up." Those below look and are transformed. Look at the spirit-like way of heaven: the four seasons never go wrong. The sages use that spirit-like way to set up their teaching, and the world submits.

"A great sight stands above" says that the yang lines at the top are what is looked at. "Yielding, and entering gently" is Kun below and Xun above, and "central and upright" is line five, in the middle of the upper trigram and a yang line in a yang place. "Those below look and are transformed" is the key of the passage: looking, the lower ones are changed. The Commentary then lifts the looking to heaven: watch heaven's spirit-like way and the seasons do not err; the sages teach in the same manner and the world submits. The "spirit-like way" is traditionally read as the principle by which heaven moves without leaving a trace.

The Great Image: wind over the earth, the ancient kings tour the regions

The Great Image turns the direction around:

Wind moves over the earth: Guan. The ancient kings accordingly toured the regions, observed the people, and set up teaching.

A Great Image names the image first and then the conduct, and here the subject is "the ancient kings". Wind crosses the ground and leaves no place out. To tour the regions is to inspect every quarter, and to observe the people and set up teaching is to teach only after looking at them.

One character, two directions: in the Commentary the people below look up at the one above; in the Image the one above walks down to look at those below. The hexagram writes both in.

The six statements: who looks, and at what, keeps changing

Each of the six statements contains the word guan, but the one who looks and the thing looked at are different every time.

Line one, at the bottom, is a child's look: seeing only what is in front of the eyes. The statement gives two verdicts, no blame for a petty person and regret for a noble one, and the Small Image says plainly "the way of the petty person". Line two is a peeping look, looking through a crack. The statement adds "fitting for a woman to stay on course", and the Small Image says "this too is something to be ashamed of".

Line three turns the look onto the self: "observing my life: advance or retreat", a choice between going forward and holding back once the looking is done, and the Small Image says "he has not lost the way". Line four, "observing the glory of the state", looks at the splendor of a realm: "fitting to be a guest of the king", and the Small Image says "he is esteemed as a guest". Line five repeats "observing my life", now followed by "a noble person, no blame", and the Small Image glosses it as "observing the people". At the top the "my" changes to "his": "observing his life", with the comment "his aim is not yet at rest".

Neighbors of Guan: Lin, Bo, Dazhuang, and "can be looked at"

Turn Guan upside down and you have Lin, with the two yang lines back at the bottom. Change every line to its opposite and you get Dazhuang (大壯), which has both of its yin lines at the top. The nuclear hexagram is Bo (剝); for how it is taken, see the structure of a hexagram. Of Guan's two yang lines only the one at the top remains.

The Xu Gua links Guan to what precedes it in a short phrase:

Only when things are great can they be looked at.

What has grown large is worth looking at. After Guan comes Shihe (噬嗑), and the Xu Gua's account is that only after looking can there be anything to bring together.