Rén-Rén-Rén-Rén
The yin is packed full across the open country.
The yang broods over the ten thousand things and reddens them underneath.
1
He puts his heart away in the deep water.
The root down there gets better for it.
Nothing of the spirit goes outside.
2
He nourishes the crooked thing without saying so.
From the first, what is inside it is not straight.
The middle of him is going bad quietly.
3
He puts muck on the hill to make it rich.
The roots take it.
What is bright in this is down in the dirt.
4
The swallow goes back and forth, feeding.
That is the whole of what it wants.
This is a merchant’s road and nobody else’s.
5
The yellow heart sits in the belly.
White bone puts on flesh again.
Nobody can pay this back and nobody is asked to.
6
Restless, restless. Fed three times a day.
The ox is being fattened and the lot has already been cast.
The fatter it gets the less of it is its own.
7
A boy with an elephant on a rope.
A woman with a big cat on a tether.
The gentleman is at home, nursing what ails him.
8
The bone will not come out of his throat.
The poison in it comes up.
The ghost goes over the top of the grave-mound.
9
The stars come round, the year comes round.
It joins itself onto its own beginning.
The end feeds the start.
THE IMAGE
A majestic ancient sacred ginkgo tree standing beside a steaming thermal spring in a quiet snowbound valley, its roots drawing deep geothermal vitality as mist rises into the winter sky.
THE COMMENTARY
The final figure asks what sustains life and what you are sustaining in return. Nourishment may be physical, emotional, intellectual, relational, spiritual, or material, but whatever is repeatedly fed will become stronger.
Nourishing is therefore not simply about giving more. Food can restore the weak, deepen corruption, fatten something destined for another purpose, or become an obstruction that cannot be swallowed. Wisdom lies in knowing what deserves feeding, how much, and toward what end.
This figure also turns back toward the beginning. What is nourished now becomes the material of the next cycle. Feed the root, strengthen what can carry life forward, and remember that endings themselves may become nourishment for what has not yet begun.
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.