Yang-Yin-Yin-Yin
The yang breath is steep and comes to a point.
Things in being born are all single, and not double.
1
The crab scrabbles this way and that.
Afterward it is drawn down to the yellow springs.
Its heart was never in one place.
2
Sharpened to one thing.
There is nothing it does not reach.
t holds the road and the road holds.
3
Sharpness gone wild, washing loose.
It cannot stay in one place.
The point has spread itself into water.
4
Sharp exactly when it should be.
Nothing in it goes wrong.
The edge found the hour that was cut for it.
5
Sharp toward the east, the west forgotten.
He sees the back and not the heart.
There is no turning aside from what is behind him.
6
Sharpness among the common kind,
held inside five roads and ten thousand bells.
Upright. There is no bottom to it.
7
Sharpened only for the profit.
Shame arrives, and worse.
The disgrace is waiting in one direction.
8
He sharpens the sharpness again
to save what has already failed.
The remedy is turning in his hand.
9
Ridge steep, bank sheer.
The slope gives way.
An edge taken all the way is a falling.
THE IMAGE
An exquisite bronze dagger and keen spearhead gleaming with celestial edge-light on an anvil of dark river granite, surrounded by sparks of focused qi and cutting wind slicing through morning mist.
THE COMMENTARY
Something has come to a point. Attention, ambition, judgment, skill, or intention may be unusually concentrated, giving you the ability to penetrate a problem that previously resisted you.
Sharpness is useful only when it remains directed. An edge that cuts cleanly can accomplish much, but an edge turned everywhere at once ceases to be an edge at all. The oracle therefore asks what deserves your full concentration and what should be left outside it.
There is also a warning about refinement carried too far. Skill can become severity, clarity can become narrowness, and determination can become fixation. Use the edge for its proper purpose, then know when to stop sharpening.
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.