Original Meaning of the Zhouyi, Volume 3: Great Commentary, Upper Section

[Zhu Xi's introductory note:] 'Appended Statements' originally referred to the judgments composed by King Wen and the Duke of Zhou, appended beneath the hexagrams and lines -- that is, the present scripture text. This chapter is Confucius's commentary on those appended statements. Because it discusses the general principles and standard examples of the entire classic, it cannot be attached to any particular hexagram and is therefore divided into upper and lower sections. Heaven is exalted, Earth is humble: thus Qian and Kun are established. The low and the high are displayed: thus the positions of noble and base are set. Movement and stillness have their constancies: thus the firm and the yielding are determined. Things group by kind, beings separate by type: thus fortune and misfortune arise. In Heaven, images are formed; on Earth, shapes are completed: thus transformation and change become manifest. [Zhu Xi:] 'Heaven and Earth' are the actual Heaven and Earth. The constancies of high and low, the positions of noble and base -- these refer to the hexagrams and lines of the Changes. Movement is the constancy of yang; stillness is the constancy of yin.

The Way of Qian completes the male; the Way of Kun completes the female. Qian presides over the great beginning; Kun brings things to completion. [Zhu Xi:] Qian presides over the initiation of things, and Kun effects their completion. Qian through ease is known; Kun through simplicity has its ability. Through ease and simplicity the principles of all under Heaven are grasped. When the principles of all under Heaven are grasped, one achieves one's position in their midst. [Zhu Xi:] Qian, being vigorous and active, accomplishes everything with ease. Kun, being yielding and still, accomplishes everything with simplicity. What is easy is easy to know; what is simple is easy to follow. Easy to know, then one has affinity; easy to follow, then one has achievement. With affinity, one can endure; with achievement, one can be great. To endure is the virtue of the worthy; to be great is the undertaking of the worthy.

The sage established the hexagrams, observed the images, and appended statements to them, thereby making clear what is auspicious and what is inauspicious. The firm and yielding push against each other and produce transformation and change. Therefore: the auspicious and inauspicious are images of gain and loss; regret and distress are images of worry and apprehension; transformation and change are images of advance and retreat; the firm and the yielding are images of day and night. The movements of the six lines are the Way of the Three Ultimates. [Zhu Xi:] The Three Ultimates are the ways of Heaven, Earth, and Humanity. The bottom two lines represent Earth; the middle two represent Humanity; the top two represent Heaven. The lines that change from yielding to firm are advancing; those that change from firm to yielding are retreating.

The images speak of what has taken form. The lines speak of what undergoes change. The auspicious and inauspicious speak of gains and losses. Regret and distress speak of minor flaws. 'No error' means being good at correcting one's faults. Therefore: what arrays the noble and the base resides in the positions; what equalizes the small and the great resides in the hexagrams; what states the auspicious and inauspicious resides in the judgments; what gives concern over regret and distress resides in the boundary; what shakes one to have no error resides in remorse. Therefore the hexagrams have small and great, and the statements have the perilous and the easy. The statements each point toward their destination. [Zhu Xi:] This chapter expounds the general pattern of the hexagram statements.

The Changes is commensurate with Heaven and Earth; therefore it can weave together the Way of Heaven and Earth. Looking up, one observes the patterns of Heaven; looking down, one examines the principles of Earth. Therefore one knows the reasons for the hidden and the manifest. Tracing things to their origin and following them to their end, therefore one knows the explanations of death and life. Vital essence and breath unite to form beings; the wandering soul produces transformation. Therefore one knows the true character of ghosts and spirits. Because it resembles Heaven and Earth, it does not deviate. Because its knowledge encompasses the myriad things and its Way aids all under Heaven, it does not err. It moves in all directions without being swept away. It delights in Heaven and knows destiny, therefore it does not worry. It is content in its place and earnest in humaneness, therefore it can love. It encompasses the transformations of Heaven and Earth without excess. It completes the myriad things in their particularity without omission. It penetrates the Way of day and night and knows it. Therefore spirit has no fixed place, and the Changes has no fixed substance. [Zhu Xi:] This chapter speaks of the greatness of the Way of the Changes.

One yin and one yang -- this is called the Way. What continues it is the good. What completes it is human nature. [Zhu Xi:] The alternation of yin and yang, in their ceaseless operation, is what is called the Way. What carries it forward and extends it is goodness; what brings it to completion and makes it specific to each being is nature.

[Chapters 6-12 of the Upper Great Commentary continue with the following major topics:] Chapter 6: The breadth and greatness of the Changes. 'The Changes -- how broad, how great! Speaking of what is distant, it is without limit; speaking of what is near, it is still and correct; speaking of what lies between Heaven and Earth, it is complete.' Chapter 7: The Changes as the means by which the sage plumbs the deepest principles and penetrates to the subtlest beginnings. Chapter 8: The sage's use of the Changes -- 'The noble person, when at rest, contemplates its images and ponders its statements; when about to act, contemplates its changes and ponders its prognostications.' Chapter 9: The method of generating hexagrams through the yarrow stalk procedure -- 'The number of the great expansion is fifty; of these, forty-nine are used.' Chapter 10: The comprehensive system of the Changes -- 'The Changes has the Supreme Ultimate, which generates the Two Modes. The Two Modes generate the Four Images. The Four Images generate the Eight Trigrams.' Chapter 11: The purpose and application of the Changes -- 'The Changes opens up things and completes affairs, encompassing the Ways of all under Heaven.' Chapter 12: Concluding summary -- 'The Changes is a book that cannot be kept at a distance. Its Way moves ceaselessly, circulating through the six positions without resting, moving above and below without constancy.'