Yang-Rén-Rén-Yang
The yang breath spreads everywhere, without leaning and without slant.
Things contend and go to law, each following its own due.
1
He contends by not contending.
It happens down in the dark.
This is the road with nothing dyed on it.
2
A thin man shouting at the river.
The water does not stop.
What did he think was holding him up?
3
They contend at the archery butts, bowing.
Each gives way to the man beside him.
The only contest that stays a courtesy.
4
He contends for the small profit.
Nothing in it comes ripe.
The straight road goes dark while he is on it.
5
He contends out on the nine-way crossing.
No one direction is the useful one.
He stands where all the roads can see him.
6
The arm swollen to the size of the leg.
The branch outgrowing the trunk.
The body has a sickness with a name.
7
Shield, spear and helmet in the quarrel.
He goes out ahead of the king.
The fight is not his and he is in it.
8
The wolf’s mouth is full.
The arrow is already behind it.
It never once looked around.
9
Two tigers with their teeth in each other.
The one who lets go walks away whole.
Knowing where to stop is the whole art.
THE IMAGE
Two noble warriors in bronze armor contesting a boundary stone upon a rugged mountain ridge while dark thunderclouds churn above a divided river canyon, with surrounding vignettes of courtroom debates and contesting falcons.
THE COMMENTARY
A disagreement, competition, claim, or struggle has become difficult to avoid. Conflict does not automatically mean that either side is wrong; sometimes two legitimate interests simply meet at the same place.
The oracle asks first how you contend. There are ways of opposing without hatred, asserting without humiliation, and even competing while preserving mutual respect. There are also disputes in which the desire to win becomes more destructive than the issue that began them.
Know what is worth fighting for, what belongs to you to defend, and where stopping becomes wiser than victory. Some conflicts are resolved not by overpowering the other side but by refusing to carry the struggle farther than it needs to go.
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.