TERMBASES
This is a term used in The Book of Changes to explain the meaning of hexagrams. It may be understood in two ways. First, when used in divination, it is a judgment predicting good fortune. Yuanheng (元亨) means a wide, smooth path or a grand sacrificial rite. Lizhen (利贞) refers to a favorable reading by a diviner and an auspicious prospect. Second, from the point of view of morality, it is believed to stand for four virtues associated with the qian (乾) hexagram. One view is that the four virtues are benevolence, rites, righteousness, and integrity; other views are that they represent four stages of life from birth to maturity, or four forms of moral conduct dictated by the way of heaven and adhered to by the sage in caring for all creatures.
One of the eight trigrams, it consists of three yang lines: ☰. It is also one of the 64 hexagrams when it consists of six yang lines:
. According to scholars on The Book of Changes, as the qian trigram is composed only of yang lines, it is purely yang and is thus used to symbolize all yang things or principles. The qian trigram symbolizes heaven, and in social terms, it symbolizes the social roles played by the male, the father, and the monarch, as well as decisive and vigorous ways of doing things. In this context, qian also means creating and leading all things under heaven.
The term means the primal source from which all things originate, both animate and inanimate, including human beings. Yuan (元) manifests itself in different forms. In the Han Dynasty, it was considered a kind of primal physical material that both produced and made up the myriad things of the world. The Book of Changes divides yuan into two primal sources: the heavenly source which gives birth to the sun, moon, and stars, and the earthly source which creates all other things on earth. In The Spring and Autumn Annals, the term refers to the first year in its chronologies, symbolizing the start of a new historical period, and serving as the manifestation in the human world of the natural process in which things begin, end, and are replaced.
The term means that one should strive continuously to strengthen himself. Ancient Chinese believed that heavenly bodies move in accordance with their own nature in a vigorous and forever forward-going cycle. A man of virtue, who follows the law of heaven, should be fully motivated and work diligently to strengthen himself. This is the Chinese view on governance and self development, established with reference to the movement of heavenly bodies. Together with the notion that a true gentleman has ample virtue and carries all things, it constitutes the fundamental trait of the Chinese nation.
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