On the Cantong Qi (9): Governing the First of Administration—Innovate the New and Reform the Old

Governing the first of administration—innovate the new and reform the old. Contain and close in fine subtlety; open, spread, and array the treasure. The essential Dao's Dipper handle governs the guiding principles and keylinks of transformation. Line-images move within; auspiciousness and misfortune arise without. The five planets' errors and alignments respond as the times stir. The Twenty-Eight Lodges in discord and deviation, separating and joining, bowing and rising. Wenchang tallies and records in统; reprimands the terrace ministers and the hundred officials and their departments, each managing its charge. The sun joins the essence of the five phases; the moon receives the regulation of the six pitches. Five times six make thirty degrees; when degrees end, they begin again. Trace the origin and seek the end—the thread of survival and loss: or the lord arrogant and dissolute, overfull and contrary to the Dao; or ministers corrupt and fawning, acting off the proper track. Phases of bows, fullness and waning—deviant changes and ominous blame. The law-enforcers remonstrate and reprove, questioning faults and bequeathing them to the ruler. The Pole Star receives correctness, leisurely entrusting those below. Proclaiming policy in the Bright Hall, the state has no path contrary to the Dao. Governing the first of administration—innovate the new and reform the old If policy is issued, the first matter is to "innovate the new and reform the old"—but what does this have to do with cultivation practice? This is in fact the secret of using lead. The Wuzhen Pian says: "When using lead, do not use common lead; having used true lead, still cast it away; This is the true wondrous formula of using lead—using lead while not using it is the honest statement." Earlier passages spoke of subduing the White Tiger—that is water-gold. Although wondrous beyond the ordinary, it is still common lead. Where is the true lead? Although the White Tiger is numinous, it is not numinous of itself; it is numinous because of the true qi stored within. Thus this true qi is true lead. If one does not know this and takes the tiger for lead, the substance is mixed and impure. If one uses common lead, gains the secret of fire phases, and cultivates to completion, one may achieve the lower grade, yet hardly escapes life and death. If one uses true lead, gains the meaning of fire phases, and cultivates to completion, one may achieve the middle grade and thereby shed the register of death. Only by using true lead and then casting it away, gaining the secret of fire phases, can one attain the highest grade. Therefore the Way-learning school strongly urges innovating the new and reforming the old—it is not clinging to old routines and preserving custom. Contain and close in fine subtlety; open, spread, and array the treasure. This points in fact to the work of the misty true qi steaming and permeating—continuous and unbroken, illuminated by the clear light. Kan-water is steamed, so mistily it rises upward, streaming and permeating the body's channels, flowing and extending into the four limbs. In terms of the fire phases, one stops the fire phases: the fire neither advances nor retreats—this is performing the work of bathing. Within this, examine the eight characters carefully and savor them as profound and subtle. The essential Dao's Dipper handle governs the guiding principles and keylinks of transformation. In the arts of calculation, wherever the emperor's dignity arrives, the hundred sha do not rise and the myriad sha do not generate—this is all the Dipper's work. Because the Dipper covers and enfolds, the hundred sha cannot invade. Since antiquity, the Son of Heaven has never been one who suffered bodily destruction; though the body undergoes a hundred battles, it remains whole and precious—this too is a sign of the emperor star, the work of protection by the Dipper. In yin-dwelling fengshui burials and constructions, if one can accurately calculate the emperor star's direction, one may also avert a hundred evils. Present-day fengshui scholars, examining ancient tombs, have seen certain tombs that suffered much sha yet whose descendants prospered with blessing—something that "turning sha into authority" alone cannot explain; this is in fact all the work of the emperor star. It is only a pity that methods for calculating the emperor star in present books are largely speculative imaginings. In the imperially commissioned "Compilations Correcting the Calendar and Distinguishing Directions" the matter is already groundless; the author also knew this, so he directly called them "all fabrications by calculating diviners." The "Rumen Chongli Zhekui Kanyu Wanxiao Lu" compiles a theory whose principle comes from "the emperor emerges from Zhen," yet in practice the method is no more than Kuafu chasing the sun. The "Renzi Xuzhi" even claims that Saturn's position is the emperor star—unintelligible. I casually point to a few books for scholars to discern. Moreover, in Daoist methods there is also the art of storing the soul in the Dipper; its principle connects with this—nothing more than taking the Dipper to cover the body, to conceal the soul and spirit, and thereby avert misfortune. This method includes the steps of the gang-stars, the methods of talismans and incantations, and the applications of visualization; though many method-gates exist, in substance there is one principle. There are also side arts that do not follow the Dipper but seal the soul into an object—using a jar, called "soul-storing jar" or also "covering-soul method"—principle likewise connected. But these are all minor arts. The power of Dipper-gang can also rotate the five phases; it is not merely a function of covering and protection. The Northern Dipper points north, and under heaven all is winter. Where the Dipper points is where the monthly establishment is; thus the year's twelve months are all calculated by the Dipper—through the ages never changed—so it "governs the guiding principles and keylinks of transformation." In the Ming dynasty, the Western cleric Matteo Ricci came to China to preach the religion. Wishing to borrow Western exact calculation and, conveniently, insert the Christian religion into China, he mixed Western astronomical calculation into the Chinese calendar, changing the mean-qi method of the solar terms to fixed qi, following the sun's nodes. However, Chinese numerology sets months and changes stems and branches according to the monthly establishment. By celestial learning, the equator was originally used; Western astronomical astrology wrongly used the ecliptic. This one change produced a discrepancy of days, further confusing yin and yang, and the calendar science gradually lost the Dipper's meaning. In the equatorial coordinate system, what the Dipper relies on is actually the earth's center; yet the heart of heaven does not move—it is actually because the earth turns on its axis that there is a center. Thus "Heaven's nature is in humans; the human mind is the mechanism." This mechanism's essentials: although heaven's nature is originally in motion and the human also moves to accord with heaven, that there is a heart of heaven is yet because of the human mind. Furthermore, "Establish by the Dao of heaven, in order to fix the human." If the human mind is fixed, then the heart of heaven naturally operates—this is established in the Dao of heaven and fixed in the human; the mystery within is clear. It is a pity that although this teaching existed in antiquity, present-day people, dazzled by the precision of fixed qi, reject and refuse it, no longer knowing what the Northern Dipper is. If one follows the ecliptic, the sun is but one thing among the heavenly bodies—how then can one, following the sun, bring the heavenly bodies into rotation? Therefore one must take the human as center, and only then can heaven and earth be seen. Line-images move within; auspiciousness and misfortune arise without. The five planets' errors and alignments respond as the times stir. The Twenty-Eight Lodges in discord and deviation, separating and joining, bowing and rising. Celestial bodies in their motion have both errors and alignments. What "four and seven" refers to is the Twenty-Eight Lodges: broadly, when the star lodges are disordered, in the human world there must be improper affairs. Wenchang tallies and records; reprimands the terrace ministers and the hundred officials and their departments, each managing its charge. If in the human world there are improper affairs, there must be improper persons. Since there are improper persons in the human world, one must trace the roots and seek the veins to resolve them. What makes a person a person is the ability to cultivate virtue. Though the heavenly measure may be disordered, the human mind can be regulated. Thus from Wenchang's tallying and recording, reprimand the hundred officials in charge, inspect each department, investigate roots and origins, to rectify the qi under heaven. Governing the state is like governing the body; governing the body is also like governing the state. As with a person's cultivation: whenever the body is unwell, the constitution is disharmonious, or fortune does not flow smoothly, there must be some cause. One should trace the roots and seek the source, investigate things at their origin, extinguish danger while it is still a sprout, dissolve disaster before it takes form—thus rectifying it. Still more wondrous: illness is treated before it arises; matters are resolved before they occur—this is the way of the superior physician and the great workman. The sun joins the essence of the five phases; the moon receives the regulation of the six pitches. Five times six make thirty degrees; when degrees end, they begin again. The method for counting days: match the five phases with yin and yang to transform into the ten stems. Yang days go first; yin days follow; yang and yin continue each other, to join the essence of the five phases. What the months receive: according to the six pitches matched with yin and yang, transform into the twelve branches. Yang branches go first; yin branches follow; yang and yin continue each other, to receive what is regulated. And what the five phases and six pitches ride upon together comes to thirty. Thus Jia-Zi and Yi-Chou are both metals of the na-yin; they are matched by the early or late conjunction day to metal. Therefore the first day is assigned metal, the second fire, the third wood, the fourth earth; the rest follow this pattern. Take day as yang and night as yin; again match into sixty hexagrams, thirty and cycling. So the Tun and Meng hexagrams are both metal; Xu and Song are fire; Shi and Bi are wood; the rest imitate this. Again, the year's measure is three hundred sixty degrees, cycling in thirty; thus it divides into twelve months. Each month has its stems and branches; each month also has its five phases. Trace the origin and seek the end—the thread of survival and loss: or the lord arrogant and dissolute, overfull and contrary to the Dao; or ministers corrupt and fawning, acting off the proper track. Phases of bows, fullness and waning—deviant changes and ominous blame. The law-enforcers remonstrate and reprove, questioning faults and bequeathing them to the ruler. The mind as sovereign: with qi as minister. If the mind is arrogant, it shows as excess—and thus is contrary to the Dao. Or if qi is reckless and fawning, it will hardly accord with heaven—and thus disorder; disorder must invite misfortune. Therefore disorder of qi must harm the state; disorder of qi must sicken the body. The saying "the gentleman is cautious when alone, not deceiving in a dark room": one's daily words, deeds, and conduct when no one is as if someone is present—this is self-discipline. Only with such cultivation功夫 can one have a hundred submissions and a thousand compliances. Among worldly people, those of high character are respected by the crowd; rulers who are wise and enlightened are praised by the people. The way of cultivation is likewise the same. Qi is like a great river: it can be dredged but not dammed; the principle is the same. Changes of the moon's phase have waxing and waning; changes of policy decrees must also have expansion and contraction with measure—yet must not be rigidly and mechanically applied. Only thus can they accord with heaven and earth's transformations. Otherwise policy is hard to carry out; though the intention is good, its execution is bad, leading again to remonstrance and satire against court policy—which must throw ministers and commoners' hearts into confusion. Though one questions faults, one cannot rectify them, and instead again bequeaths harm to the ruler—thus losing the Dao. The Pole Star receives correctness, leisurely entrusting those below. Proclaiming policy in the Bright Hall, the state has no path contrary to the Dao. Therefore according to the times, as the Northern Pole does not move yet holds the center, as the sage embraces the One and becomes the multitude under heaven: putting the body last yet the body comes first, putting the body outside yet the body endures—according to the seasons, refine with the fire phases; when the line is still, do not gather; when the line moves, do not miss—only then can one attain. Thus brightness in policy, proclaimed in the Bright Hall, the state has no contrary path, and the body likewise has no contrary path. This is the essential of using mercury. Mercury's nature transforms, numinous and flying and hard to restrain; it must receive the correct qi—thus the White Tiger gains awe, lead gains its momentum, to implement its policy. When policy is issued, then there are regulations to act by. Such a seed: do not forget and do not assist; do not think of gaining, do not take what it has, do not urge its action—let it wander freely. Its traces are hard to predict, yet its transformations have numbers. Let it undergo its thousand changes and ten thousand transformations without departing from the one center—the dragon tumbling through heaven and earth, yet like a flowing pearl rolling in all directions, only converging at the hollow, sunken place, like water pearls rolling on a lotus leaf. Thus dragon and mercury gradually congeal into a mass; gather it in the Yellow Court, condense it in the Purple Court. Thereupon use lead to restrain mercury, as the Bright Hall proclaims policy: lead and mercury then unite, and the state has no contrary path.