A New Interpretation of "One Yin and One Yang Is Called the Dao"

If one yin and one yang is called the Dao, then two yin or two yang is not. Taking the affirmative and the negative, we obtain:

Yin + Yang = affirmative

Yang + Yin = affirmative

Yang + Yang = negative

Yin + Yin = negative

Same is negative, different is affirmative. For yang is movement, yin is stillness; movement is change, so difference is yang and sameness is yin. Thus yin is 0 and yang is 1; adding 0 gives 0 and 1 gives 1. With no carry, this also matches binary addition.

When intertwined, the result is Zhen: one yang is born at the base line; two yang attained at the second; three yang complete, so three is the momentum. For Kun, three yin complete, so it is above. For Gen, one yang descends, so it is at five; two yang descend, so four is the momentum. For Li: one yang is born at the base; one yang also descends, again at six; taking the middle—fire's nature flares upward—so it dwells at four. Kan likewise: water's nature moistens downward, so it is at three. Outer empty and inner solid is return; outer solid and inner empty is wandering—hence the two hexagrams of wandering and return. Yet "Heaven and Earth are set in place, and Change moves within them"; "Change is Kan and Li, Qian and Kun as two functions"; and "the two functions have no line positions, circulating through the six voids; coming and going are not fixed, and upper and lower are without constancy"—hence they are called the soul. Are wandering-soul and return-soul really fixed at three and four? Not so. Also: "coming and going are not fixed, upper and lower without constancy"—they change in accordance with the time. This too is their prognostic verification: not judged by the world-line alone, but always by the useful spirit.