Kuan / Contemplation (View)

above:The Gentle, Wind
below:K'un The Receptive, Earth

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).

Overall Meaning

Observation, the symbol of contemplation

The Chinese character Kwan, from which this hexagram is named, is used in it in two senses. In the Thwan, the first paragraph of the treatise on the Thwan, and the paragraph on the Great Symbolism, it denotes showing, manifesting; in all other places it denotes contemplating, looking at. The subject of the hexagram is the sovereign and his subjects, how he manifests himself to them, and how they contemplate him. The two upper, undivided, lines belong to the sovereign; the four weak lines below them are his subjects, - ministers and others who look up at him. The two upper, undivided, lines belong to the sovereign; the four weak lines below them are his subjects, - ministers and others who look up at him. Kwan is the hexagram of the eighth month.

In the Thwan King Wan symbolizes the sovereign by a worshipper when he is most solemn in his religious service, at the commencement of it, full of sincerity and with a dignified carriage.