Yang-Yang-Yin-Yang
The yang breath is barred by the yin.
Mired, all things find themselves shut in.
1
A snake lies down in the mud.
There is a female and no male.
In the end nothing is given to it.
2
Bar the storeroom.
Make the treasure fast.
The heart of it is a deep well.
3
A gate with no bolt in it.
They have put the key away.
The thief comes in by the door.
4
They pull out my yoke-pins.
A little is gained by going a little way.
What holds the cart together is trust.
5
Mired and barred, hauled at and worked against —
not stone, and yet like stone.
What opposes you is as hard as you are.
6
The yellow pheasant is shut in,
bedded on a mat of gold.
Enclosure is how the thing is kept.
7
Halting, halting, hemmed in by coarse matting.
Someone may bed down in the hut.
The lodging is where the trouble is.
8
Red stench blown through the gate-pass.
The great lord does not bar it.
The house is taken with the state.
9
Gate barred until the end.
Empty.
What was never opened cannot be filled.
THE IMAGE
A monumental ancient Chinese fortress gate with heavy wooden beams and bronze fittings, framed by high ramparts and defensive clouds.
THE COMMENTARY
Something is closed, constrained, or deliberately kept apart. A door may not be opening, access may be limited, or circumstances may be forcing you to remain within boundaries you would rather escape. The oracle asks you not only what is blocking you, but what the barrier is doing.
Some barriers protect what is valuable. Others conceal emptiness, prevent necessary exchange, or create the very vulnerability they were meant to prevent. The presence of resistance therefore does not tell you by itself whether to push, wait, reinforce, or open.
Examine the structure of the limitation. What is being guarded? What has been excluded? What would happen if the gate opened? Sometimes enclosure preserves life; sometimes the refusal to open leaves nothing inside. The wisdom of Barrier lies in understanding which kind of boundary you are dealing with.
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.