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.