Rén-Rén-Yang-Yang
The yin breath turns clear and cold.
The yang hides itself in the ground, and things are carried over into shape.
1
It is finished and it looks like nothing.
The use of it does not stop.
Down in the dark, where no one calls it finished.
2
Barely made, and already he is changing it.
Changing it again.
It never gets far enough to stand up.
3
It is done, and he leaps, and then he draws back.
Once the bird is up you cannot chase it.
The drawing-back is where the strength went.
4
Nearly finished, and he begins to boast.
The boasting finishes it.
Something in the making has caught an illness.
5
Finished at the center, and he oversees it alone.
Large.
He is standing exactly where he stood at the start.
6
He is head of it and he keeps the small parts too.
The finishing is what fetches the harm.
There was nothing left over to hand anyone.
7
The finished thing has a gap in it.
He mends it.
Whatever is completed is hard to stand on top of.
8
The hour was ready and the thing was not.
Heaven sends down the losing.
He was the only one off center.
9
Completion runs out and walks into ruin.
The gentleman breaks his own work before it can.
He does not finish, and so he does not end.
THE IMAGE
A grand imperial banquet hall celebrating the dedication of a majestic newly completed bridge spanning a mighty river, where architects and dignitaries raise golden goblets in triumph.
THE COMMENTARY
Something has been brought into form. A project, relationship, period of effort, or long process may have reached the point where it can properly be called complete.
Completion is delicate because the finished thing immediately enters a new condition. The desire to improve, defend, possess, boast about, or control every detail can damage what was sound at the moment it came together.
Know when enough has been done. Completion is not permanent stillness; it is the point at which making gives way to maintaining, using, handing on, or deliberately allowing another cycle to begin.
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.