The King

The king is the ordering center of the human world in the Book of Changes: the point around which fiefs, laws, music, and worship arrange themselves, as the images arrange themselves around heaven. The figure recurs because the oracle needs a human counterpart to the cosmic order, and the kings of antiquity appear in the Images again and again as founders and models. In 08 Pi - Holding Together (union):

Thus the kings of antiquity
Bestowed the different states as fiefs
And cultivated friendly relations
With the feudal lords.

In 21 Shih Ho - Biting Through "the kings of former times made firm the laws / Through clearly defined penalties"; in 24 Fu - Return (The Turning Point) "the kings of antiquity closed the passes / At the time of solstice"; in 16 Yü - Enthusiasm "the ancient kings made music / In order to honor merit," offering it "To the Supreme Deity, / Inviting their ancestors to be present"; and in 20 Kuan - Contemplation (View) "the kings of old visited the regions of the world, / Contemplated the people, / And gave them instruction."

Royal authority renews itself at its spiritual source: "The king approaches his temple" in 45 Ts'ui - Gathering Together (Massing) and 59 Huan - Dispersion (Dissolution). Royal recognition is the book's image of effectiveness acknowledged, as in 35 Chin - Progress:

PROGRESS. The powerful prince
Is honored with horses in large numbers.
In a single day he is granted audience three times.

And in 46 Shêng - Pushing Upward, "The king offers him Mount Ch'i," receiving the worthy helper into the halls of the ancestors. Yet service to this center is selfless. The formula of 02 K'un - The Receptive runs: "If by chance you are in the service of a king, / Seek not works, but bring to completion."

The Taoist parallel is the sage-king of the Tao Te Ching, who rules by placing himself below, winning the hundred valleys as the sea does. The Changes states the same ideal in its own words in hexagram 42, Increase: "To rule truly is to serve." The king of the oracle is not a legalist sovereign but a servant of completion, honored precisely because he does not seek the honor.