Discussing the Zhouyi Cantong Qi (30): Kan as the Male and the Moon, Li as the Female and the Sun
Kan as the male is the moon; Li as the female is the sun. The sun bestows virtue; the moon unfolds its light. The moon receives transformation from the sun, and its body is not diminished or harmed.
If we take images from the Eight Trigrams, Kan is the middle son and Li is the middle daughter; while Kan is the sun and Li is the moon, when sunlight shines upon the moon, the moon's incomplete parts are filled in again.
When yang loses its covenant, yin invades its light; at dark and new moon there are thin eclipses, as covering and surging press upon each other. Yang is consumed in form, and calamity is born of yin's encroachment.
If the yang aspect is lost and light cannot shine upon the moon, then yin will invade the brightness and darkness returns—thus come the thin eclipses of the dark and new moons, and even further the shrouding of mist and cloud. In this way yang appears ever less and yin grows ever stronger, and calamity is thereby produced.
Male and female assist each other, holding earth to nourish; female and male intermingle, each seeking its kind.
What male and female share in common is that both must obtain true earth as mediator, so that yin and yang can transform and generate. The myriad things differ as yin and yang, female and male, and should seek one another by kind.
Metal transforms into water, and the nature of water is to surge and flood; fire transforms into earth, and water cannot proceed.
If metal transforms into water, once life is gained water will flood; fire transforms into earth, which overcomes water and restrains its movement.
The male moves and acts outward; the female is still and hides within. When overflow exceeds the proper measure, she is restrained by the female. The po restrains the hun, and there must be no excessive indulgence.
Here male and female stand for Kan and Li: the male moves and acts outward, while the female is still and hides within. If overflow exceeds the proper measure, then Kan is constrained by Li; therefore the earth po within Kan must not commune too excessively with the heavenly hun—there should be measure and moderation.
Neither cold nor heat; advance and retreat accord with the season. Each attains its harmony, and together they manifest the confirming signs.
Whether cold or heat, once it goes too far one should balance and seek stability; advance and retreat must accord with the seasons. Only then can there be harmony, and in the end one attests to the confirming signs.
What is meant by Kan as male and Li as female: using the one yang within Kan to enlighten the yin within Li—this is called drawing and adding. Yet drawing and adding must also observe measure and moderation. If drawing and adding is too fierce, the body becomes hot as in summer; if too slow, the body becomes cold as in winter. One should proceed steadily, neither cold nor hot, attesting step by step. When the season is thus aligned, the signs appear at once; and drawing and adding must not be too frequent—if too frequent, the po is restrained by the hun and balance is lost.
That metal meets water is precisely metal within water; the Yellow Maid (earth) must serve as intermediary, so that with “earth restraining, water does not rise” flooding is avoided. And this earth must itself be generated and supported by drawing fire, so that in craving generation one forgets overcoming: fire overcomes metal yet generates earth; water overcomes fire yet nourishes wood. From this, a single numinous sprout germinates.
Cinnabar, essence of wood, joins when it gains metal; metal and water unite in place, wood and fire as companions.
Thus is cinnabar-wood essence obtained—yet this wood essence must also join with metal, that is, the harmony of North One and West Four, together with East Three and South Two making five in all.
The four, in primordial chaos, are arrayed as dragon and tiger. The dragon's yang number is odd; the tiger's yin number is even.
The four are East Three, South Two, North One, West Four. Odd numbers are One and Three; even are Two and Four. Hence One and Three become the dragon, while Two and Four are spoken of as the tiger.
Liver green is father, lungs white is mother, kidneys black is son, Li red is daughter, spleen yellow is ancestor; the sequence begins at zi and wu.
The liver is green, the lungs white, the kidneys black, Li is red; therefore Zhen and Dui are taken as father and mother, and Kan and Li as son and daughter—that is, Three and Four as a union generate One and Two. In the Luo Book this is Three and Seven summing to ten, One and Nine summing to ten; Three and Seven generate One and Nine, and all take central yellow as the ancestor.
Just because Kan is water and the child of metal, Li is fire and the child of wood—all things are born of earth and return to earth—therefore, whatever the thing, all take central yellow as ancestor.
The three things are one family; all return to Wu and Ji.
Acknowledging the ancestor and returning home: the three things are one family, all because of Wu and Ji (earth).