Yang-Rén-Yin-Yang
The yang breath is strong within.
It can hold off the massed yin, push it back and turn it away.
1
He shuts out the good on the inside.
What is left is not of the right kind.
The center no longer resembles anything.
2
He shuts out the bad on the inside.
Nobody sees it done.
The finest work is the work with no witness.
3
The skirt fights off the belt-hook.
Something is going to come loose.
There is nothing now that holds it together.
4
The net is set and it turns them back.
It is upright as far as the birds are concerned.
The law has been put where it goes.
5
The glue lets go and the lacquer lets go.
Horn parts from wood; the bow will not shoot.
Nothing was holding it but the trust.
6
Metal grows where stone is dissolving.
What goes out is small, what comes back is large.
The good in it turns out to be the big thing.
7
He shuts out his own good kind.
The seal and its ribbon are in danger.
He has kept out the only thing that could straighten him.
8
He pushes back against the hard buckle.
The gentleman’s hour arrives; the small man goes uneasy.
Rightness still does not get to walk.
9
He widens the eyes, he lifts the horns.
He will not lower his body an inch.
The blow comes back the way it went out.
THE IMAGE
A formidable ancient stone rampart and heavy wooden fortress gate withstanding a fierce mountain gale and crashing river surge without yielding an inch, guarded by upright bronze shields.
THE COMMENTARY
Something must be resisted, excluded, or turned back. The question is not whether boundaries are needed, but whether you are keeping out what is harmful or rejecting what might actually correct you.
Repelling can protect integrity when it is guided by clear principle. But resistance easily becomes reflex, pride, or fear, especially when we defend ourselves against anything that challenges the shape we have already taken.
This oracle asks you to examine what you are refusing and why. A strong boundary should preserve what is sound inside; if it merely hardens the existing disorder, then the defense itself has become part of the problem.
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.