Rén-Yang-Rén-Yang
The yin puts on white, the yang puts on black.
Each goes about its own office, and coming or going, there is something worn.
1
He says the thing without saying it.
He does not use speech for it.
He is believed, and he has not opened his mouth.
2
He decorates what has nothing under it.
The figure comes out beautifully first.
Later there is not even a coat.
3
He puts out a tongue that stays at the center.
He holds a brush that stays at the center.
Only somebody who knows will know.
4
A tongue running smooth, chattering and chattering.
It is upright — for a merchant.
Everything it says has a price on it.
5
He puts his own words low, the way water goes.
Everything runs down into him and fills him.
The sea is under all of it.
6
The word goes out and nothing brings it back.
Push it down and it only goes up.
When a big man speaks it arrives as weather.
7
This is not the hour for saying it straight.
He makes the words very small.
Anything plainer would be looked at.
8
The cicada goes on and on with the same note.
Blood comes out of its mouth.
Nobody was ever going to listen.
9
The tongue curls back and folds at the root.
He is not believed and he stops.
A man can keep this up for a long time.
THE IMAGE
A master artisan in an open courtyard lacquering and inlaying a sacred bronze vessel with gold thread and polished mother-of-pearl, surrounded by carved wooden screens and silk banners.
THE COMMENTARY
How something is expressed matters now. Words, presentation, style, appearance, and manner can reveal what is inside, conceal it, or reshape how others receive it.
Adornment is not necessarily deception. A fitting form can make truth perceptible, just as the right words can carry an inward reality into relationship. Trouble begins when decoration replaces substance or communication becomes chiefly an instrument for selling, impressing, or controlling.
Consider both what you mean and how you are expressing it. Sometimes plain speech is best; at other times safety, diplomacy, or circumstance requires something subtler. The test is whether the form remains faithful to what it is carrying.
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.