Hexagram 20 · Guān 觀 Observation

觀，盥而不薦，有孚顒若。

Guan: the hands have been washed, but the offering is not yet presented. There is sincerity, solemn and dignified.

Zhu Xi reads guan as being on view: having something to show, and being looked up to for it. The strong fifth line sits high while four yin lines below gaze up, and the trigrams are yielding within and gentle without. The scene is a rite at its most collected moment, hands washed clean and the offering not yet made. Purity kept and not spent lightly lets sincerity fill the inside, and that solemnity is what others look up to. He adds that, with yin growing, the figure belongs to the eighth month, yet its name and words were chosen to favor the yang.

風行地上，觀。先王以省方觀民設教。

Wind moves over the earth: Guan. The former kings inspected the regions, observed the people and set up teaching.

Wind passing over the land touches everything it crosses. Zhu Xi draws out the two sides of the word: the former kings toured the regions in order to observe the people, and set up teaching so that the people would have something to look to. Seeing and being seen belong to the same task.

Line 1, yin (初六)changing line in the shared reading

童觀，小人无咎，君子吝。

A child's way of looking. For the petty person, no blame; for the noble person, humiliation.

Two senses of the word meet here, Zhu Xi explains: the hexagram is about being looked at, centered on the fifth line, while each line is about looking up at that fifth line. The first line (初六) is soft and at the very bottom, too low to see far, so it looks the way a child does. That is ordinary in a petty person and blameless, but in a noble person it is cause for shame.

Line 2, yin (六二)changing line in the shared reading

闚觀，利女貞。

Peering through a gap. It is fitting for a woman to be correct and firm.

The second line (六二) is soft and sits on the inner side of the figure, looking outward from within, which Zhu Xi pictures as peering through a gap. Within the household order the text assumes, that inward view counts as a woman's proper correctness; he adds that for a man the same line holds nothing favorable.

Line 3, yin (六三)changing line in the shared reading

觀我生，進退。

Observing one's own conduct, to advance or to withdraw.

Standing at the top of the lower trigram, the third line (六三) could go either up or back. Instead of gazing at the fifth line like the others, Zhu Xi says, it looks at its own conduct, at where its path runs open and where it is blocked, and decides from that whether to advance or withdraw. He tells whoever receives it to examine themselves. Here the observing turns inward.

Line 4, yin (六四)changing line in the shared reading

觀國之光，利用賓于王。

Seeing the splendor of the kingdom. It is favorable to be a guest of the king.

Of all the lines, the fourth (六四) is closest to the strong ruler in the fifth place, so it sees the kingdom's brilliance from near at hand. Zhu Xi reads the second phrase as being received at court and entering the ruler's service; that is the occasion the line favors. Its gaze has reached the source of what all the lower lines look up to.

Line 5, yang (九五)changing line in the shared reading

觀我生，君子无咎。

Observing one's own conduct. For the noble person, no blame.

Everything below looks up at the fifth line (九五), strong, central and correct in the ruler's seat, and Zhu Xi sees in it the figure of a noble person. Because all eyes are on it, the words act as a warning: whoever holds this place should look at their own conduct and make sure it really is firm, central and correct. Then there is no blame. Being watched is a reason to watch oneself first.

Top line, yang (上九)changing line in the shared reading

觀其生，君子无咎。

Observing his conduct. For the noble person, no blame.

The top line (上九) sits above the ruler's seat and holds no office in the affairs below, yet people still look to it. Zhu Xi says its warning is nearly the same as the fifth line's: the wording swaps “one's own” for “his,” which he calls a small difference of host and guest. Standing outside the business does not take one out of view.