Rén-Rén-Yang-Rén
The yin turns thief on a great scale.
The yang cannot hold anything, and things fall into water nobody has sounded.
1
He stabs at empty air and the blade goes in to the hilt.
Nothing is cut.
He caught it while it was still the size of a thought.
2
The power in him is small and far off and very fine.
It is lost.
He never learned to be afraid of small things.
3
He follows it through to the end, worrying, standing straight.
It goes down to the root of his heart.
He is able to change while it is still his to change.
4
He trusts his own mistake and does not eat.
The sun goes sideways and then goes down.
Nobody stays alive on a whole day of that.
5
Yellow hair and new teeth, keeping the middle.
It fences him round.
The gentleman uses it to wash the fault off.
6
The barn is full and the field is going to weeds.
He eats the fruit and does not feed the root.
The full thing is standing on the ruined thing.
7
When he is ill he takes the medicine.
When there is a shaman he pours the wine.
The harm can still be turned around.
8
The hen crows at daybreak.
The doe grows horns, the fish climbs the tree.
Everything is doing the opposite of itself.
9
Sun and moon going away.
He changes it from inside the coffin.
That is late and it is not too late.
THE IMAGE
An archer at a winter range examining a dropped bow and an arrow that went wide of the target mark, calmly retrieving the shaft to adjust stance, breath, and grip under the watchful eye of a master.
THE COMMENTARY
Something has been lost, missed, misplaced, or allowed to slip beyond your grasp. The oracle asks less whether loss can be avoided than what can still be learned, corrected, or recovered from within it.
Loss often begins very small. A neglected detail, subtle weakness, unexamined mistake, or forgotten root may eventually become the reason a much larger structure fails. Yet even serious loss does not necessarily end the possibility of change.
Do not let shame make you incapable of learning. Examine the source, accept medicine where it is available, and remember that even very late recognition can alter what the loss means.
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.