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Huangdi Neijing · The Yellow Emperor’s Inner Canon
Suwen 66 · The Heavenly Origin Order
Read in English. Switch to Original for word notes, or select text to ask a question.
The Yellow Emperor asked: “Heaven has five phases governing five positions and producing cold, summer heat, dryness, dampness and Wind. People have five zang organs transforming five qi and producing joy, anger, thought, worry and fear. The discourse says the five movements succeed one another in governance and return to their beginning when the full period ends. I know this. How are they joined with the signs of Three Yin and Three Yang?”
Gui Yuqu bowed twice and touched his head to the ground: “How illuminating the question! The five movements and yin and yang are the Way of Heaven and Earth, the ordering thread of the myriad things, parents of transformation and change, foundation of generation and killing, and receptacle of spiritual brightness. How could one fail to understand them?
A thing’s arising is called transformation; reaching its limit is called change. What cannot be fathomed in yin and yang is called spirit; spirit’s operation without fixed bounds is called sageliness. Their operation is mystery in Heaven, the Way in people and transformation on Earth. Transformation produces five flavors; the Way wisdom; mystery spirit.
Spirit is Wind in Heaven and Wood on Earth; heat in Heaven and Fire on Earth; dampness in Heaven and Earth as a phase below; dryness in Heaven and Metal on Earth; cold in Heaven and Water on Earth. Thus it is qi in Heaven and takes form on Earth. Form and qi respond and transform to generate all things.
Heaven and Earth are the above and below of all things; left and right the pathways of yin and yang. Water and Fire are their signs; Metal and Wood the ending and beginning of generation and completion. Qi has greater and lesser amounts, form flourishing and decline. Above and below call to one another, revealing loss and gain.”
The Emperor asked: “How do the five movements govern their seasons?”
Gui Yuqu said: “The five qi circulate and each completes its full cycle of days. They do not govern only a single season.”
The Emperor said: “Please explain what this means.”
Gui Yuqu said: “I have long examined the Register of the Great Beginning and Heavenly Origin. Its text says: ‘Vast emptiness is boundless, establishing the origin of transformation. All things draw upon its beginning; the five movements complete Heaven. True and numinous qi is spread, governing Earth’s primal power. Nine stars hang bright; seven luminaries revolve. Yin and yang, yielding and firm: hidden and manifest occupy their places. Cold and summer heat relax and tighten. Generation continues generating, transformation continues transforming, and all kinds of things become displayed.’ My lineage has preserved this for ten generations. This is its meaning.”
The Emperor said: “Good. What is meant by greater and lesser qi and flourishing or declining form?”
Gui Yuqu said: “Yin and yang qi each have greater and lesser amounts, hence Three Yin and Three Yang. Flourishing and declining form means the governance of the five phases each has excess and failure to reach. At the beginning, excess proceeds and insufficiency follows; insufficiency proceeds and excess follows. Know what approaches and what follows, and qi can be assigned its period. Corresponding with Heaven is a heavenly tally; supporting the year is the year’s appointed station. The three joining establish governance.
Reading note: The supplied 歲直 is retained as the year’s appointed station rather than silently replaced with a different term for yearly concordance.”
The Emperor asked: “How do above and below call to one another?”
Gui Yuqu said: “Cold, summer heat, dryness, dampness, Wind and Fire are Heaven’s yin and yang, served above by Three Yin and Three Yang. Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Fire are Earth’s yin and yang, answering below through generation, growth, transformation, gathering and storage. Heaven generates through yang and grows through yin; Earth kills through yang and stores through yin. Heaven has yin and yang, and Earth also has yin and yang.
Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water and Fire are Earth’s yin and yang: generation, growth, transformation, gathering and storage. Thus yin is within yang and yang within yin. To know Heaven and Earth’s yin and yang, consider that qi responding to Heaven moves without rest and shifts rightward in five years; qi responding to Earth is still and keeps its place, returning to meet in six periods.
Movement and stillness call to one another; above and below confront one another; yin and yang interweave, and change arises.
Reading note: The six-term Earth list with Fire twice, its repetition, and the supplied five-year/six-period assignments are retained.”
The Emperor asked: “Are there numbers for the full cycles above and below?”
Gui Yuqu said: “Heaven takes six as its divisions and Earth five as its measure. Completing heavenly qi takes six periods; completing Earth’s order takes five years. Sovereign Fire gives illumination; ministerial Fire occupies its position.
Five and six join: seven hundred twenty qi periods make one order of thirty years. One thousand four hundred forty qi periods, sixty years, make a full circuit. Failure to reach and excess are all revealed through this.”
The Emperor said: “Your account completes heavenly qi above and Earth’s order below. It is comprehensive. I wish to hear and preserve it: above, to govern the people; below, to regulate the body; to make the people clear, superiors and inferiors harmonious, beneficence flow downward and descendants free of worry. Can it be heard and transmitted without end to later generations?”
Gui Yuqu said: “The mechanism of ultimate numbers is urgent and subtle. Its arrival can be seen and departure traced. Respect brings flourishing; neglect ruin. Acting selfishly without the Way necessarily brings Heaven’s calamity. Reverently follow Heaven’s Way; let me speak its true essentials.”
The Emperor said: “One who explains beginnings well must join them to endings; one who explains the near must know the far. Then ultimate numbers are exhausted and the Way unconfused: clarity. Please extend and order the account, making it coherent, concise yet inexhaustible, lasting without interruption, easy to use and hard to forget. I wish to hear the entire guiding order and essential of the ultimate numbers.”
Gui Yuqu said: “How illuminating the question, how clear the Way—like a drum answering its beater and an echo answering a sound. I have heard: Jia and Ji years are governed by Earth movement; Yi and Geng by Metal; Bing and Xin by Water; Ding and Ren by Wood; Wu and Gui by Fire.”
The Emperor asked: “How does this join with Three Yin and Three Yang?”
Gui Yuqu said: “In Zi and Wu years, Shaoyin appears above; Chou and Wei, Taiyin; Yin and Shen, Shaoyang; Mao and You, Yangming; Chen and Xu, Taiyang; Si and Hai, Jueyin. Shaoyin is called the marker; Jueyin the ending.
Above Jueyin, Wind qi governs; above Shaoyin, heat qi; above Taiyin, damp qi; above Shaoyang, ministerial Fire; above Yangming, dry qi; above Taiyang, cold qi. These are the roots, called the six origins.
Reading note: The supplied 己 in the last year pair is read contextually as the earthly branch 巳, Si, paired with Hai. The marker/ending wording and all six upper governing influences remain.”
The Emperor said: “How radiant the Way, how clear the discourse! Inscribe it on a jade tablet, store it in the Golden Chest and label it Heavenly Origin Order.”
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