Contemplating the Glory of the Kingdom as a Guest of the King

Proximity transforms the view at the fourth line. Legge's translation shows one contemplating the glory of the kingdom and says it will be advantageous for such a person to seek to be a guest of the king, while the Little Symbolism confirms that he should be honoured as a guest. After the distant look of the lad and the narrow view through a door, this line sees the whole of what the hexagram has been pointing at, and sees it from inside.

A yielding stroke correctly occupies the fourth, even place at the base of the upper trigram Xun, directly beneath the strong fifth line that rules the figure. Nearness to that ruling position is the entire source of the line's advantage. A guest of the king is not an officeholder and does not need to be; the standing described is that of someone admitted to observe at close range and valued for the quality of what they observe.

Read across the hexagram, this is where contemplation stops being a private act and becomes a public one. The judgment praised the dignity of a rite seen from without, and the fourth line is the first position with a genuine view of it, which is why the text turns immediately from what is seen to the terms on which the seeing should be sought.