Yang-Yang-Rén-Rén
The yang breath is strong within and weak without.
Things hold each other up and move toward greatness.
1
I come forward on hands and knees.
What I love in it is the hidden power.
It looks like no movement at all.
2
A glittering approach, licking and licking.
No profit in having anywhere to go.
The wanting to go is the whole trouble.
3
Grass catches fire as it comes on.
The hills and mounds are the place for it.
The short thing stands over the tall.
4
He comes as far as the wine and the meat.
Grown fat, and no one says his name.
The office had no direction in it.
5
The approach has feet under it.
It is set down on hard grain.
The place it stands in was made for it.
6
Coming alone, and going on, going on.
Small things prosper by it, not large.
What is alone stays the size it is.
7
The white sun stands over the hour.
There is time to finish what you were told.
Age is what has the leverage now.
8
The coming of fleas, the coming of lice.
Danger.
Nothing this small will hold your weight.
9
The coming complete, head and tail bound together,
standing at the lip of the gorge.
Whatever arrives here arrives all at once.
THE IMAGE
An imperial procession with bronze chariots and celestial figures advancing across firm stone terrain under a luminous noon sun, traversing branching crossroads.
THE COMMENTARY
Something is approaching. It may be an opportunity, relationship, responsibility, change of circumstances, or the visible arrival of something that has been developing quietly for some time.
Do not judge the approach solely by how dramatic it looks. What moves toward you slowly or humbly may carry considerable power, while something glittering and urgent may have little substance beneath the attraction. The quality of the arrival matters more than its spectacle.
Coming also asks what can support what is arriving. Some things come with their own footing; others remain small because they stand alone. Near the end of the process, events may gather quickly and arrive all at once. Be attentive to what is truly drawing near, because by the time its full shape appears, much of the preparation may already have taken place.
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.