說卦傳
Discussion of the Trigrams
9 sections · Commentary by Han Kangbo · Subcommentary by Kong Yingda
Chapter 1 — The Sage's Creation of the Changes
第一章
幽贊於神明而生蓍者，言聖人幽深贊助於神明之道而生出蓍策之法也。參天兩地而倚數者，參三也，天數奇故三之，地數偶故兩之，依倚此數以立卦也。窮理盡性以至於命者，聖人窮極天下之理，盡天下之性，以至於天命也。
'Secretly assisting spiritual illumination and producing the yarrow stalks' — the sage secretly and profoundly assisted the way of spiritual illumination and thereby produced the method of yarrow-stalk divination.
'Using three for Heaven and two for Earth to establish the numbers' — 'three' (can) means three; heavenly numbers are odd, hence counted by threes; earthly numbers are even, hence counted by twos. He relied on these numbers to establish the hexagrams.
'Exhausting principle and fully realizing nature to reach destiny' — the sage exhausted all principles under Heaven, fully realized all natures under Heaven, and thereby reached the decree of Heaven.
正義曰：此一節就卦之畫言其三才之道。昔者聖人之作易也，將以順性命之理，是以立天之道曰陰與陽，立地之道曰柔與剛，立人之道曰仁與義。兼三才而兩之，故易六畫而成卦。分陰分陽，迭用柔剛，故易六位而成章。
The Correct Meaning states: This section discusses the Way of the Three Powers through the lines of the hexagrams. In ancient times when the sage created the Changes, his intention was to follow the principles of human nature and destiny.
Therefore he established the Way of Heaven as yin and yang, the Way of Earth as yielding and firm, and the Way of Humanity as humaneness and rightness. Combining the Three Powers and pairing them, the Changes uses six lines to form a hexagram.
Dividing into yin and yang, alternately using the yielding and the firm, the Changes uses six positions to form a pattern.
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