Yin-Rén-Yang-Yin
The yin draws its substance in; the yang scatters its markings out.
Pattern and substance stand side by side, and things are brilliant.
1
A painted collar under a plain robe.
Upright as jade.
The pattern is on the inside.
2
The pattern is fine and the substance is not there.
The two cannot both be pure.
What is finely worked is finely worked and nothing else.
3
Great pattern gets plainer the greater it is.
Great trust looks like not enough.
There is more underneath than shows.
4
Streaked and dappled, marked like tiger and leopard.
Heaven did not hand this over.
The skin is why they are hunted.
5
Blazing, striped, and the pattern raised up bright,
the carriage and robes given out for what men have done.
The markings on the sky are what he is copying.
6
The wild goose writes as it flies, and there is no rule in it.
It goes where the river goes.
The letters mean whatever the wind meant.
7
The pheasant will not take the grain.
The chicken comes forward and eats.
He has feathers he will not be fed for.
8
Carved and carved, fine as a hair.
The grain rots, the cloth rots, the season goes.
Ornament this small is the beginning of disorder.
9
Pattern worked to its densest point.
He exchanges it for black-and-white axe-shapes.
Going back to plain is also a made thing.
THE IMAGE
A pavilion of imperial arts where master calligraphers compose brushwork poetry on silk, textile masters weave brocades with dragon and cloud motifs, and musicians play ancient tunes on jade flutes beside reflecting ponds.
THE COMMENTARY
Appearance and substance are asking to be brought into right relation. Presentation, language, style, beauty, ritual, reputation, or visible form may matter now, but only insofar as they reveal rather than replace what is underneath.
Pattern gives shape to substance and makes meaning perceptible. Yet ornament can become so elaborate that the form is admired while the essential thing decays unseen.
Use beauty and expression with restraint. The strongest pattern may be comparatively plain because it allows depth to show through rather than demanding that every surface carry decoration.
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.
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.