Suwen · The Great Record of Heaven's Origin

The text

The Yellow Emperor asked: Heaven has five phases; they govern the five positions, and from them cold, heat, dryness, dampness, and wind are born. A person has five zang; they transform five qi, and from them joy, anger, thought, sorrow, and fear are born. The discourse says the five movements succeed one another and each governs in turn; when the allotted days are finished, they circle and begin again. This I already know. I wish to hear how they join with the seasons of the three yin and the three yang. Gui Yuqu bowed his head, bowed again, and answered: How clear a question this is. The five movements and yin and yang are the Dao of heaven and earth, the binding thread of the ten thousand things, the father and mother of change, the root and beginning of birth and killing, the house of spiritual brightness. How could one not penetrate them? What things give birth to is called transformation; what things reach their extreme in is called change. What yin and yang do that cannot be measured is called spirit; when spirit acts without a fixed method, that is called sage. The use of change: in heaven it is the dark-and-far; in the person it is Dao; on earth it is transformation. Transformation gives birth to the five flavors; Dao gives birth to wisdom; the dark-and-far gives birth to spirit. Spirit in heaven is wind, on earth is wood; in heaven is heat, on earth is fire; in heaven is dampness, on earth is soil; in heaven is dryness, on earth is metal; in heaven is cold, on earth is water. So in heaven it is qi; on earth it takes form. Form and qi answer each other, and the ten thousand things are transformed and born. Heaven and earth are the above and below of the ten thousand things; left and right are the roads of yin and yang. Water and fire are the signs of yin and yang; metal and wood are the end and beginning of completion and birth. Qi has more and less; form has fullness and decline. Above and below call to each other, and increase and decrease become plain. The Emperor said: I wish to hear how the five movements govern the seasons. Gui Yuqu said: The five qi travel and each finishes its allotted days. They do not govern the seasons alone. The Emperor said: Please let me hear what you mean. Gui Yuqu said: I have long studied the Book of the Great Beginning and Heaven's Origin. Its text says: The Great Void is vast and empty. It lays the foundation of the transforming origin. The ten thousand things draw their beginning from it. The five movements complete heaven. They spread qi, true and numinous, and preside over the origin of earth. The nine stars hang bright; the seven luminaries circle. Call it yin, call it yang; call it soft, call it hard. The hidden and the visible have taken their places; cold and heat stretch and gather. Birth upon birth, transformation upon transformation — every kind of thing stands forth. My house has held this for ten generations. This is what it means. The Emperor said: Good. What is meant by qi having more and less, form having fullness and decline? Gui Yuqu said: The qi of yin and of yang each has more and less; therefore one speaks of three yin and three yang. Form having fullness and decline means the government of the five phases, each having excess and falling short. So at the start: when surplus goes, insufficiency follows; when insufficiency goes, surplus comes after. Know how to meet it and how to follow it, and qi can be awaited at its time. What answers heaven is Heaven's Tally; what receives the year is the Year's Alignment; when three join, that is government. The Emperor said: How do above and below call to each other? Gui Yuqu said: Cold, heat, dryness, dampness, wind, and fire are the yin and yang of heaven; the three yin and three yang serve them above. Wood, fire, soil, metal, water, and fire are the yin and yang of earth; birth, growth, transformation, gathering, and storing answer them below. Heaven uses yang to give birth and yin to let grow; earth uses yang to kill and yin to store. Heaven has yin and yang; earth also has yin and yang. Wood, fire, soil, metal, water, and fire are the yin and yang of earth — birth, growth, transformation, gathering, and storing. Therefore within yang there is yin; within yin there is yang. If you wish to know the yin and yang of heaven and earth: the qi that answers heaven moves and does not rest, so in five years it shifts to the right; the qi that answers earth is still and keeps its place, so in six periods it circles and meets. Motion and stillness call to each other; above and below come face to face; yin and yang interlace — and change is born from this. The Emperor said: In the circling record of above and below, is there a number? Gui Yuqu said: Heaven takes six as its measure; earth takes five as its rule. What completes the circuit of heaven's qi: six periods make one full set. What finishes earth's record: five years make one circuit. Sovereign fire is by brightness; ministerial fire is by position. Five and six join: seven hundred twenty qi make one record — thirty years. One thousand four hundred forty qi — sixty years — make one great circuit. Falling short and going too far are all seen in this. The Emperor said: Your words finish heaven's qi above and complete earth's record below; they may be called thorough. I wish to hear them and store them — above, to govern the people; below, to govern the body — so that the hundred families stand clear, above and below are at peace and close, virtue's moisture flows down, children and grandchildren have no worry, and it is passed to later ages without an end. May I hear this? Gui Yuqu said: The pivot of the utmost numbers is pressed close and fine. Its coming can be seen; its going can be followed back. Those who honor it flourish; those who slight it perish. To walk without the Dao and follow private will is to meet heaven's disaster. I will carefully serve heaven's Dao, and speak the true essentials. The Emperor said: One who speaks well of the beginning must meet the end; one who speaks well of the near must know the far. Then the utmost numbers reach their limit and the Dao is not confused — this is what is called brightness. I wish you to unfold it in order, so that it has a thread, is simple and not wanting, lasts long and does not break, is easy to use and hard to forget — make it a binding record. The essentials of the utmost numbers: I wish to hear them all. Gui Yuqu said: How clear a question; how bright the Dao — like a drum answering the stick, like an echo answering a sound. I have heard: in years of Jia and Ji, the soil movement governs. In years of Yi and Geng, the metal movement governs. In years of Bing and Xin, the water movement governs. In years of Ding and Ren, the wood movement governs. In years of Wu and Gui, the fire movement governs. The Emperor said: How do they join with the three yin and three yang? Gui Yuqu said: In years of Zi and Wu, Shaoyin is seen above. In years of Chou and Wei, Taiyin is seen above. In years of Yin and Shen, Shaoyang is seen above. In years of Mao and You, Yangming is seen above. In years of Chen and Xu, Taiyang is seen above. In years of Si and Hai, Jueyin is seen above. Shaoyin is what is called the tip; Jueyin is what is called the end. Above Jueyin, wind qi governs. Above Shaoyin, heat qi governs. Above Taiyin, damp qi governs. Above Shaoyang, ministerial fire governs. Above Yangming, dry qi governs. Above Taiyang, cold qi governs. This is what is called the root. These are called the six origins. The Emperor said: How radiant the Dao; how bright the discourse. Please write it on the jade tablets, store it in the gold casket, and title it The Record of Heaven's Origin.

The line

Gui Yuqu said: I have long studied the Book of the Great Beginning and Heaven's Origin. Its text says: The Great Void is vast and empty. It lays the foundation of the transforming origin. The ten thousand things draw their beginning from it. The five movements complete heaven. They spread qi, true and numinous, and preside over the origin of earth. The nine stars hang bright; the seven luminaries circle. Call it yin, call it yang; call it soft, call it hard. The hidden and the visible have taken their places; cold and heat stretch and gather. Birth upon birth, transformation upon transformation — every kind of thing stands forth.

The note

The five movements and six qi find their pole in this chapter. A person has five zang that transform five qi, answering the five phases of heaven. First see heaven's record; then see a person's anger, joy, thought, sorrow, and fear.