Yin-Rén-Yin-Yin
The yin comes on more and more, the yang goes more and more,
and things are swept wide and empty.
1
Nothing held on the inside.
Do not begin anything.
There is no one in there to keep hold of it.
2
Empty, and sitting in the dark.
Go east, where the sun comes up.
The road can be found by going toward light.
3
Empty, and plain, and not straight.
The jade that rang is gone.
It was never his to lose.
4
Nothing he must do, nothing he must not.
What is right is the only ruler he keeps.
He is empty enough to be filled by it.
5
He runs down the deer with one eye on a shrew.
What he comes back with is not worth counting.
Two appetites and one man.
6
He is not content to be full by himself.
He hands out heaven’s pay in heaven’s place.
There is no room in him for anything private.
7
He shoots one arrow at three birds.
He goes out bright, goes all day, and does not come home.
He had everywhere to go and no one place to follow.
8
The pay is gathered back in.
The ghosts at the altar stop their crying.
Somebody dry gets rained on.
9
He uses a pearl for a pellet and shoots a bird with it.
He gets the bird.
He does not get the pearl.
THE IMAGE
A panoramic vista of sweeping central Asian grasslands and broad river valleys under a vast domed sky with soaring eagles, where nomadic pavilions and trade caravans travel freely across unbounded frontiers.
THE COMMENTARY
The situation has opened into emptiness, distance, or a field so wide that ordinary points of reference no longer seem reliable. What once held things together may be receding, leaving more space than structure.
Vastness can feel like freedom, but it can also expose how little inner direction remains when external limits disappear. The oracle asks whether you can move through openness without becoming scattered, wasteful, or captivated by every possible direction.
Do not try to fill the emptiness merely because it is uncomfortable. Let space clarify what truly matters. When the field becomes wide, a simple orientation toward what gives light may be more valuable than any elaborate plan.
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.