Gwangye

Moths are considered harbingers of gwangye in Metzettan culture.

Gwangye (광 예) is a concept in Metzettan philosophy relating to coincidence, synchronicity and individual interpretation of improbable events. With geo-ban, salajida and juinui son it forms Kanjin's four heavenly virtues. The word "gwangye" can be roughly translated as "connection," referring to the central idea it posits which is that apparent coincidences create meaning within the observer. It is considered the most esoteric and difficult to grasp of the four virtues (possibly due to lacking a strong visual or tactile cue like the other virtues), and refers specifically to the appreciation and interpretation of unlikely events rather than the events themselves. Kanjin opined that each moment presents us with an example of gwangye yet most go by unrecognised; a man can easily spot it once in his life and talk of this one example for the rest of his life, but even a master may receive only one in every ten-thousand such signals.

Description

Gwangye refers to the recognition, assessment and actions resulting from coincidences. As unlikely events pile up upon one another, gwangye becomes more impressive and profound. Gwangye is sometimes associated with the phrase, "it's a small world," but this fails to capture the entire scope of the concept; the coincidence itself is not gwangye, but the reflection upon it and the decision to act accordingly is. Many Metzettans are known to have made important life decisions on account of gwangye, including marriage proposals, business deals, serial murders and career paths.

Gwangye does not assume a causal connection between simultaneous events but does propose a non-causal connection between them from the point-of-view of a given observer. Kanjin suggested gwangye may be a gift from the gods. The recurrence of significant numbers is considered a large component of gwangye due to the influence of Daxian numerology on Kanjin; consider the case of Emperor Nama's obsession with the number 23 and its repetition throughout his lifetime.

Examples

Some examples of gwangye to consider include;

1. A man dreams about a moth. The following day he spots a strikingly similar moth and stops to examine it. A car speeds down the road he was about to cross. His dream and the arrival of the moth were timed perfectly to save him from certain death. The man resolves to savour life and all its splendour.
2. A student just leaving school is unsure of what to do with his life. While contemplating his career paths, he is idly clicking "random article" on an online encyclopedia; the page loaded happens to be for Yonderrail at which point the student decides to become a train driver. Later in life he is assigned to assist with the movement of a former Yonderrail locomotive to a railway museum.
3. The Emperor consults his history books and reads several passages on his predecessor's conquering of Daekang. An aide then arrives with news of the discovery of the island of Jinju; The Emperor immediately orders that the island is to be subjugated in accordance with the will of the gods.

Schizophrenic delusions

Individuals who report coincidences where there are none and act irrationally on this basis are considered victims of delusional thought or in rare cases schizophrenia; this is not gwangye, however affected individuals may believe it is gwangye. Kanjin specifically warned against fabricating gwangye and derided the impatience of those who attempted to "force" gwangye to appear rather than patiently waiting for it to arise.