Reading Qian and Kun together

Layers first, then side by side: reading two pages together

The pages for Qian (乾) and Kun (坤) in the Zhou Yi (周易) carry the same layers of text: the core text, followed by three commentaries, the Commentary on the Judgments (彖传), then the Commentary on the Images (象传), then the Wenyan (文言, the Commentary on the Words of the Text). To read the pages together, place one layer of the first beside the same layer of the second, then move on to the next.

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Qian and Kun side by side: one sentence per layer, with originals and sources in the text. A comparison of wording, not of character.

The layout is identical: one Judgment (卦辞), six line statements (爻辞) and one extra statement, Using Nine (用九) for Qian and Using Six (用六) for Kun, then the three commentary blocks. Other hexagram pages on Wikisource have no Wenyan block (see Core text and commentaries), so only this pair can be set side by side in all four layers.

Core text side by side: two Judgments and six pairs of line statements

Open no commentary yet (for what the Judgment and the line statements each address, see Judgment and line statements). Qian's Judgment has four characters, Kun's runs longer, and both begin with the same two, "supreme, prosperous".

Next the line statements are aligned by place (the names of the places: Line positions: Initial to Top): Initial Nine of Qian faces Initial Six of Kun, Top Nine faces Top Six, and Using Nine faces Using Six.

With the pairs aligned, the fourteen statements can be sorted again by whether the statement contains a dragon.

That will matter below. So far the original has only been set in rows; which statement answers which, the core text does not say.

Commentaries side by side: where each block attaches

All three commentaries follow the core text, each attached to a different place in it. Compare one block at a time, and first ask whether it attaches to the whole figure, to one line or to one word.

"Great is the origin of Qian" faces "utmost is the origin of Kun", "rely on it to begin" faces "rely on it to be born", and "governs heaven" faces "follows heaven" (顺承, "follows and receives"). The differences fall on a few words: begin and be born, govern and follow.

That sentence speaks to the whole figure, and one sentence per line follows. On both pages its shape is the same: before "the gentleman" comes the image, after it what he does in the manner of that image. Each page also has one Wenyan block.

Two places read together: Initial and Top

Take the lowest place, Initial, and the highest, Top. For each, put the core text first, the Commentary on the Images next and the Wenyan last, and see what each layer says.

Initial Nine of Qian is explained in more than one place. The Images say "the yang is below". The Wenyan takes it up four times, each in different words: a hidden person with a dragon's virtue, "below", "yang qi lies hidden", and the gentleman who does not act because "hidden" means not yet seen.

For Initial Six of Kun the Images have two sentences about frost and ice. The Wenyan continues:

... What it came from came by degrees, from not distinguishing early enough. The Changes says "treading on frost, solid ice arrives"; this speaks, it seems, of following.

The Images cover only the order of frost and ice; the Wenyan moves from that step to "by degrees" and "not distinguishing early enough". Same line statement, different landing.

Now the top place:

"Overreaching", as a word, means knowing how to advance but not how to retreat, how to preserve but not how to perish, how to gain but not how to lose. ...

When yin doubts yang, they must fight; because it is suspected of having no yang, it is called "dragon". It has not yet left its kind, so it is called "blood". Dark and yellow are the mixing of heaven and earth: heaven is dark, earth is yellow.

Qian's Wenyan explains what "overreaching" means; Kun's takes up the line statement's words one by one: fight, dragon, blood, dark and yellow. "So it is called dragon" answers the dragon in the core text of Kun's top line, an echo visible only when the two pages are read together. "Exhausted" also appears once on each page, in Kun's Images ("its way is exhausted") and in Qian's Wenyan ("the calamity of coming to an end"): different sentences, different layers.

Later explanations last: notes and subcommentary

Later explanations come last: the subcommentary of Kong Yingda (孔颖达) and the older notes in the Zhou Yi Zhengyi (周易正义). Where the subcommentary mentions those notes it writes "Fusi's note", Fusi being the courtesy name of Wang Bi (王弼). Each is labelled with who says it and which sentence it follows.

First, the subcommentary itself reads the two pages together. Qian's Commentary on the Judgments says "begin", Kun's says "be born", and the subcommentary sorts them like this:

"Qian" is originally the start of qi, so it says "rely on it to begin"; "Kun" rests on completed form, so it says "rely on it to be born".

"The start of qi" and "completed form" are the subcommentary's words; the commentary itself says only "begin" and "be born".

Second, an old note reads the last statements of the two pages together:

... To be firm and vigorous and yet stand at the head of others is what things do not side with; to be soft and following and yet not upright is the way of the flatterer. So Qian's good fortune lies in "without a head", and Kun's advantage in "steadfast for ever".

"Firm and vigorous" and "soft and following" are the note's words; the core text has only "a flock of dragons without a head; good fortune" and "fruitful to be steadfast for ever".

Third, one sentence of the Wenyan already gets different readings:

Later readers already read that sentence in two ways, and the subcommentary says which it takes. They help in reading the commentary; they are not part of the core text or the commentaries.

1. 1

   Is it core text or commentary?

   Sort the sentence by its block before asking what it means.

2. 2

   What does each page say at this layer?

   Set the same layer side by side and compare only the words on the page.

3. 3

   Which layer does this word come from?

   For a word such as "following" or "firm", find first whether it sits in the core text, a commentary or a note.