Yang-Yin-Yin-Yang
The yang breath multiplies and breeds.
Things gain, and day by day it spreads and propagates.
1
He hears what is right and grows quieter.
Nobody outside gets any of it.
What he added went inward.
2
He does not add to his substance.
He adds to his shine.
The polish is all there is.
3
The tree increases by standing still.
It goes on a little at a time.
Nothing will fit over it now.
4
The waist cannot carry what it has.
Someone piles more onto the head.
The load is finding out where the body ends.
5
The marsh keeps its basin low.
Every wetness in the country comes to it.
It is large because it is empty.
6
Red carriage, torches parcelled out.
Three thousand added in a single day.
The gift is the size of the one who takes it.
7
He builds it higher, he cuts the slope sharper.
The mound holds.
Whatever rises here rises with its own subtraction.
8
He doubles his money by using people.
Going out, it comes back larger.
The celebration comes before the accounting.
9
The great crag does not come down.
It is held up by the low ground at its foot.
The men standing under it are stiff as posts.
THE IMAGE
A grand terraced earthen embankment and stepped stone grain storehouse being steadily layered with fertile rich soil and golden grain sheaves, nourished by rising morning sunlight and gentle cloud showers.
THE COMMENTARY
Something is growing. Resources, influence, knowledge, responsibility, wealth, attention, or inner capacity may be increasing, but the oracle asks what kind of increase is taking place and where it is actually accumulating.
Not every addition makes a thing stronger. Surface polish can grow while substance remains unchanged, and burdens can increase faster than the structure carrying them. Genuine increase often works more quietly: roots thicken, trees rise slowly, and empty places become capable of receiving more because they do not resist what comes.
Increase is therefore as much about capacity as quantity. What grows well has somewhere to go, something to support it, and a larger purpose than mere accumulation. Ask whether what is being added is deepening the whole or simply making one part larger.
This figure is one of 81 in Taixuanjing for Today, a book by Joe Perez that renders Yang Xiong’s Canon of Supreme Mystery in original verse, with expanded commentary, essays, and full instructions for casting the oracle yourself.