Original Meaning of the Zhouyi, Volume 4: Miscellaneous Notes on the Hexagrams
周易本義卷四·雜卦傳
Original Meaning of the Zhouyi, Volume 4: Miscellaneous Notes on the Hexagrams
周易本義卷四·雜卦傳
Miscellaneous Notes on the Hexagrams
雜卦傳
乾剛坤柔比樂師憂臨觀之義或與或求屯見而不失其居蒙雜而著震起也艮止也損益衰之始也大畜時也无妄災也噬嗑食也賁无色也兑見而巽伏也隨无故也蠱則飭也剝爛也復反也晉書也明夷誅也咸速也恒久也渙離也節止也解緩也蹇難也睽外也家人内也否泰反其類也大壯則止遯則退也大有衆也同人親也革去故也鼎取新也小過過也中孚信也豐多故也親寡旅也離上而坎下也小畜寡也履不處也需不進也訟不親也大過顛也姤遇也柔遇剛也漸女歸待男行也頤養正也既濟定也歸妹女之終也未濟男之窮也夬決也剛決柔也君子道長小人道憂也
Qian is firm; Kun is yielding. Bi (Holding Together) is joy; Shi (The Army) is worry. Lin (Approach) and Guan (Contemplation) have the meaning of 'giving or seeking.' Zhun (Difficulty) means 'appearing without losing one's place.' Meng (Youthful Folly) means 'confused yet becoming manifest.' Zhen (Arousing) is rising. Gen (Keeping Still) is stopping. Sun (Decrease) and Yi (Increase) mark the beginning of waxing and waning. Daxu (Great Taming) is timely. Wuwang (Innocence) is calamity. Shike (Biting Through) is eating. Bi (Grace) is without color. Dui (Joy) manifests while Xun (Gentleness) hides. Sui (Following) is without cause. Gu (Decay) is correction. Bo (Splitting Apart) is dissolution. Fu (Return) is turning back. Jin (Advance) is daytime. Mingyi (Darkening of the Light) is punishment. Xian (Influence) is speed. Heng (Duration) is permanence. Huan (Dispersal) is separation. Jie (Limitation) is stopping. Xie (Deliverance) is easing. Jian (Obstruction) is difficulty. Kui (Opposition) is outer. Jiaren (The Family) is inner. Pi (Standstill) and Tai (Peace) are reversals of the same type. Dazhuang (Great Strength) means stopping; Dun (Retreat) means withdrawing. Dayou (Great Possession) means multitude. Tongren (Fellowship) means intimacy. Ge (Revolution) discards the old. Ding (The Cauldron) takes up the new. Xiaoguo (Slight Excess) means going too far. Zhongfu (Inner Truth) means trustworthiness. Feng (Abundance) means 'much cause.' 'Intimacy is rare' -- the Wanderer. Li (Clinging) rises while Kan (The Abyss) descends. Xiaoxu (Small Taming) means scarcity. Lv (Treading) means not staying. Xu (Waiting) means not advancing. Song (Conflict) means not being close. Daguo (Great Excess) means overturning. Gou (Encounter): the yielding encounters the firm. Jian (Gradual Advance): the woman marries while waiting for the man to act. Yi (Nourishment) is nourishing the correct. Jiji (After Completion) is settled. Guimei (The Marrying Maiden) is the woman's end. Weiji (Before Completion) is the man's extremity. Guai (Breakthrough) is decision: the firm decides against the yielding. The way of the noble person grows; the way of the small person wanes. [Zhu Xi:] From Daguo onward, the hexagrams do not appear as reversed pairs, unlike the pattern elsewhere. The reason for this is unclear -- there may be textual corruption.
The Zagua zhuan (雜卦傳, Miscellaneous Notes on the Hexagrams) is the last and shortest of the Ten Wings. Unlike the Xugua (Sequence), which explains the hexagrams in their received order, the Zagua pairs hexagrams by their structural relationships -- typically matching hexagrams that are inversions of each other (turning the hexagram upside down produces its partner). The terse, aphoristic style has led some scholars to suggest it may preserve an older oral tradition of hexagram mnemonics.
Zhu Xi's note about the section from Daguo onward breaking the reversal pattern reflects a long-standing scholarly puzzle. Most hexagram pairs in this text are structural inversions, but the final group includes hexagrams that are complements (every line changes to its opposite) rather than inversions. Some scholars believe the text has been corrupted or disordered in transmission.
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