The I Ching, Legge tr.: Text Section II: XXXI. The Hsien ...

This is a scholarly commentary on Hexagram 31 (Hsien/Xian) from the *I Ching* (Book of Changes), likely from a 19th-century Western sinological translation — the prose and critical stance suggest James Legge's edition. The hexagram's base text presents a six-line divination structure in which each line corresponds to a body part (toes, calves, thighs, spine, jaws), mapping the quality of influence one exerts depending on how deliberate or self-serving that influence is. The commentator argues the hexagram's central theme is mutual influence — particularly the influence between husband and wife — and that correct, selfless influence reliably produces good outcomes, while purposeful or manipulative influence invites misfortune. A notably distinctive feature is the author's candid skepticism toward traditional Chinese symbolic interpretation: he openly doubts the symbolic trigram system attributed to King Wen, admits he cannot account for the text's division into two sections, and distances himself from received cosmological explanations while still working carefully within them. The commentary also offers a philological aside on the character *kan* (influencing), suggesting the removal of the "heart" radical from the hexagram's name was a deliberate device to emphasize influence without ulterior motive. Readers interested in classical I Ching interpretation alongside a critically detached Western scholarly perspective will find this a useful if occasionally frustrating primary source.

The I Ching, Legge tr.: Text Section II: XXXI. The Hsien ...

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