I guess my question is a bit Confucian, a bit hierarchical. In my use of the Yi over the years I have come to believe that, as in Analects 2:24: The Master said: “To worship to other than one’s own ancestral spirits is flattery.” So aren’t state visits in the realm of other peoples’ altars?
By this I mean that if a leader asks about a war that is proper, it’s their war. If a general asks about a battle that’s right, it’s their battle. But if a private asks about a battle that is presumptuous. To put it in Stoic terms, the private cannot change the battle plan, only the general, so the private should ask the Yi about their own conduct in the battle, or perhaps how to survive…but the larger picture of the war is not their business because there is nothing they can do to change it. This is a difficult thing for a westerner like myself. We are so used to being armchair quarterbacks to all and sundry that goes on in the world. But it makes sense for me, so I try to follow it. The reading received, 59 changing to 7, indicates that the 6th line of 59 is read. It doesn’t seem relevant to me, again an indicator of the scale of the subject being too distant from the enquirer and not in their control.
I don’t mean to offend. Just a few scribblings of my own approach to the Yi.