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Sanming Tonghui · A Comprehensive Account of the Three Destinies
On the Generation and Completion of the Five Phases
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Heaven is high and boundless: the six energies revolve to form the four seasons. Earth is thick and deep: the five phases transform and generate the myriad things. This may be called inexhaustible and beyond full measurement. Yet when sages establish methods for calculation, nothing can escape their numbers. Looking at why those numbers were established, all arise from what is so of itself. Thus the classics record them alike, without discrepancy. Calculating to reach their workings and pursuing them to comprehend their changes never leaves the realm of number. Water is called one, Fire two, Wood three, Metal four, and Earth five: all have their origins. Water occupies Zi in the north. Zi is the beginning of yang, the first, a yang number; therefore Water is one. Fire occupies Wu in the south. Wu is the beginning of yin, the second, a yin number; therefore Fire is two. Wood occupies the east, which is yang; three is odd and also yang, so Wood is three. Metal occupies the west, which is yin; four is even and also yin, so Metal is four. Earth corresponds to the southwest and late summer; five is odd and also yang, so Earth is five. From this perspective, numbers are assigned according to yin and yang. Examining the deeper meaning, Water is generated from one. Before heaven and earth were divided and the myriad things formed, Water was invariably seen first. Thus the Spiritual Pivot says: “Great One is the honored name of Water: before heaven and earth, their mother; afterward, the source of the myriad things.” Examining the present, before plants have completed their seeds and fruit, and in the embryos and eggs of people and other creatures, all is Water. Should it not be regarded as one? When Water gathers and transforms into material form, yin and yang energies must both be present within before completion. Thus a thing small and bitter in taste is a sign of Fire; when ripe, it is sweet, the taste of Earth. Sweetness at its utmost becomes blandness, and blandness is the root. A person receives the generating transformation of the parents' yin and yang; thus the two kidneys are formed first, the left belonging to Water and the right to Fire. Fire is called the Gate of Life, so Fire becomes apparent only after Water. Hence Fire is second. Although plants' seeds and fruit differ in size, all contain two parts joining together, like the human kidneys, also a sign of yin and yang. Thus nothing can transform and generate unless yin and yang join as one body. Once they join, spring generation and autumn completion follow. Therefore Wood is third and Metal fourth. Water has somewhere to belong, Fire somewhere to be stored, Wood somewhere to issue forth, and Metal somewhere to be distinguished: all are completed through Earth. Thus Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire all await Earth for completion. Combining Earth's number, five, completes them: Water becomes six, Fire seven, Wood eight, and Metal nine. Earth always uses its generating number five and need not reach ten, because it does not await ten for completion. These generating and completing numbers all combine through five. The numbers of the Great Expansion are thereby established. How, then, could the myriad things escape their numbers?
Translator's note: The numerical scheme, classical quotation, and account of embryonic development and the kidneys are the supplied historical author's explanations. The statement that Earth does not require ten is retained as printed.
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