Qián, banners in the sunlight

name of hexagram 01

At left the character of Qián in modern fullform sript, like it is still used in Taiwan.

At right an old character found on oracle bones. It is a picture of banners and the rising sun.

乾 qián. Nowadays: heaven, male principle. Pronounced gan: dry, hollow; for nothing, in vain; helplessly; only, simply.

Right and top part of the character is an image of one or more banners on a pole. Probably oxtails. Like the flag in an army or on the building of the emperor: indicating the center of power.

Rising sun.

Meanings of Qián

Hexagram 1

Nowadays qián is only used in its meaning of heaven and male principle, which derives from the Yijing.

The warmth of the sun and the rain come from Heaven. At night the big dipper shows the time of the seasons.

The meaning of a character can change in the course of centuries, but in compounds (several images making up one character) or words (which are usually a combination of two characters) the old meaning is often retained. Looking at several of those gives a "theme", a basic or comprehensive meaning. (In parenthesis are the meanings of the parts).

  The characters (compounds) or words with QIÁN.
  1 Name of hex.1 in the Mawangdui Yijing: (metal construct) JIÀN, key, which is a symbol for the male organ.
  2 (sun-shield) dry land; drought, (to have a) dry spell.
  3 (shield) stem, trunk, main body, do; work, hold the post of, fight, have to do with; be implicated in; involve, shield, Heavenly Stems.
  4 (heaven image) signs of heaven
  5 (heaven residence) family of fiancé, home of the man or boy.
  6 (heaven symbol earth treasure) auspicious portent of Heaven and good omen of Earth: favorable signs giving evidence of the legitimacy of an emperor.
  7 (heaven earth mingling sudden) marriage of heaven and earth: phase of union between pure yin and pure yang. The character ‘sudden’ (or finished or sadness) is composed of heart and soldier. ‘Mingling’ is also sexual intercourse.

Most characters or words with qian or gan seem to have to do with drought.
It seems the pronuciation qian is only used in the Yijing, and elsewhere it is based on this. The meaning 'dry' is pronounced differently, but dry and Heaven and yang are close in their meanings.