Contemplation, Line 5

At the ruling position contemplation reverses direction. Legge's translation shows the fifth line contemplating the course of his own life and finding, as a superior man, no error in it, while the Little Symbolism supplies the method: he should contemplate the ways of the people. The line the whole hexagram has been looking toward turns its scrutiny back on itself, and the commentary makes the condition of those below the measure by which it does so.

Strong and correctly placed in the odd fifth position, central in the upper trigram Xun and holding the seat of authority, this is the one stroke in Contemplation with nothing structurally wrong with it. That soundness is what makes the self examination credible rather than anxious. A ruler in an unstable position examining himself would be looking for reassurance; this one is applying a standard.

The method named in the commentary is the line's real contribution. The ways of the people are the evidence, so the ruler is not asked to consult his intentions but to read the condition of those his conduct has actually shaped. Contemplation, which began as a question of who can see a rite properly, arrives at this position as a question of who is fit to be seen.

Nine in the fifth place is drawn when a querent holds a position others take their bearings from, and the question concerns their own conduct in it. The text credits a superior man contemplating the course of his own life with falling into no error, and the commentary specifies how the contemplation is done: by looking at the ways of the people. The evidence is external even though the object of study is oneself.

That is the practical core of the line and it resists the usual comfortable reading. A querent cannot satisfy this line by examining their motives, because the standard offered is the state of those under their influence. Where a team, a family, a congregation or a readership shows the effects of how the querent has actually behaved, the line asks that those effects be read as the verdict.

Strong and correctly placed in the fifth position, central in the upper trigram Xun, this is the only structurally sound line in the hexagram and the one every other looks toward. Its favourable reading is not automatic. Freedom from error is credited to the superior man specifically, which makes the line a description of a standard being met rather than a promise that it will be. The querent is being handed a measure to apply, not a verdict already reached, and the measure is one other people can see the results of.