Rén-Rén-Yang-Yin
Yin and yang stumble across each other and shut together into one.
Their harm makes the ten thousand things weep.
1
A round hole and a square peg, wobbling.
Inside it is hollow and nothing matches.
The two of them lost each other in there.
2
Shut, with no gap anywhere in it.
That is all there is to say.
The two of them have become one thing.
3
The dragon goes into a hole that is not its hole.
The light goes out of the room.
Nothing here is where it usually is.
4
Rich meat, and the smell blots out the nose.
Take the good of it and stay straight.
The fragrance is drowned in the fat.
5
He bites the bone and the tooth breaks.
The jar is full.
He went at it because it was there.
6
He drinks the moisture down, swallow after swallow.
He gets the richness in it.
There is a thing here worth being greedy for.
7
The shutting goes a little wrong.
Joined at the front, coming apart behind.
What closed is the same thing that is opening.
8
He splints the break, he covers the gap.
The man comes out shining and strong.
Nothing was past helping.
9
Yin and yang open and turn over.
What comes out is red and white.
The shut thing was the beginning of the opening.
THE IMAGE
Heavy iron-studded timber city gates swinging shut at nightfall as sentries lower the heavy cedar crossbar, while behind the battlements warm lanterns glow in secure courtyards.
THE COMMENTARY
Things are shutting together. A relationship, argument, process, wound, agreement, or period of uncertainty may be moving toward closure, but what closes does not always fit cleanly.
Closure can create wholeness when the parts genuinely correspond. It can also trap incompatibilities together, conceal a problem under finality, or turn fullness into pressure simply because no opening remains.
Do not seek closure merely to end discomfort. Ask whether what is being joined belongs together, whether the seal is sound, and whether the closing is actually preparing a later opening that cannot yet be seen.
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.