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Chapter 27 of 35
周易参同契
Kan-man (the male within the ☵ Kan trigram—symbolizing the yang within yin, referring to the moon, water, and kidney essence) corresponds to the moon; Li-woman (the yin within the ☲ Li trigram—symbolizing the yin within yang, referring to the sun, fire, and heart-spirit) corresponds to the sun. The sun bestows its radiance upon all things, exercising the virtue of transformation; the moon unfolds its light, casting its glow upon the night sky. The moon receives the sun's illumination and is thereby transformed, yet its own substance remains undamaged and unsullied.
Should the sun lose its proper measure of conjunction, yin will encroach upon its brightness—just as at the dark of the moon and the close of the month, solar and lunar eclipses obscure the light, veiling and overwhelming one another while shadows topple light. The sun's form gradually diminishes, yin overcomes with calamity born thereby.
Male and female (the two vital energies of yin and yang) depend upon each other, drawing on Earth (the Central True Intention, the neutral and harmonizing force) for nourishment and transformation; feminine and masculine intermingle in varying patterns, each seeking its own kind. Metal (the contracting energy) transforms into Water (the flowing energy), and watery nature then circulates and spreads, hard to restrain; Fire (the blazing energy) transforms into Earth (the balancing and stabilizing energy), and the water is thereby prevented from overflowing wantonly.
The male (yang) is active and extends outward; the female (yin) is still and gathers within. Should the male's outpouring exceed all measure and become overly indulgent, it will be restrained and bound by the female. The Po soul (associated with lung-metal, governing stillness and contraction) is used to curb the Hun soul (associated with liver-wood, governing activity and expansion), preventing it from excessive dissipation and extravagance.
Neither cold nor hot, advancing and retreating in due season, each attains its proper harmony, and together they issue forth the tokens of good governance.
This chapter centers on the principle of mutual interdependence of yin and yang, mutual restraint of movement and stillness, and harmony as the measure. Sun and moon serve as the great symbols of yin and yang: the sun shines forth its light, the moon receives it, and the two depend on each other to be luminous. Once they lose their tacit measure of conjunction, the sun is encroached upon by yin, the moon loses its radiance, and anomalies and disasters arise. When this symbolism is applied to personal cultivation, it concerns the relationship between spirit and form, activity and stillness, outpouring and gathering.
Crucial is that "Earth"—it lies not within sun or moon (yin or yang) themselves, yet it is the medium through which both nourish and sustain one another. Earth governs centrality, harmony, true intention, and mediation. Without Earth, metal transformed into water overflows, and fire without Earth cannot settle into stillness. Correspondingly, in the cultivation of mind and nature, this translates to awareness and restraint: neither forceful suppression nor unchecked indulgence, but the presence of a "middle way" that mediates between movement and stillness, expansion and contraction, giving forth and storing within.
People today often oscillate between excessive consumption and passive stagnation: either fiercely driving outward, burning themselves up, or completely collapsing into inertia and numbed avoidance. This chapter speaks to the wisdom of finding a "measure" between these two poles.
"When the sun loses its measure, yin encroaches upon its brightness"—once yang (the active, outward-driving force) loses its proper measure, yin (the negative, dissipative, shadow aspects) seizes the opportunity to invade. How closely this resembles modern "post-overwork depression": the more one exhausts their vitality, the more easily they fall into emotional lows and self-doubt. The problem lies not with "the sun" itself—emitting radiance and exercising virtue is its very nature—but with its forgetfulness of the rhythm of advance and retreat.
"Let the Po restrain the Hun, forbidding extravagance and excess" is a particularly brilliant statement: Po is the instinct of contraction (night, stillness, rest), while Hun is the instinct of expansion (daylight, activity, pursuit). Using stillness to gather motion—not to eliminate motion entirely, but to keep it from becoming indulgent license. This subtly aligns with the modern psychological concept of "self-regulation": not the repression of desire, but rather creating a space of awareness when desire arises, preventing it from spiraling out of control.
This text, applied to daily cultivation of mind and character, offers at least the following practical layers:
This chapter offers a profound insight worth pondering: Yin and yang are not opposing polarities but exist in inseparable "mutual need." Without yang's outpouring, yin cannot manifest; without yin's storage, yang cannot be sustained. Between them, there must be "Earth" as the third-party mediator—thus breaking beyond simple binary thinking.
This echoes Laozi's Daodejing, "All things carry yin and embrace yang; the emptiness-breath brings them into harmony": "Harmony" is not mere addition of two elements but a dynamic state of equilibrium involving a third dimension. In the human being, this mediator called "Earth" can be understood as intrinsically present awareness—it belongs to no single pole yet is the very space through which the poles interpenetrate.
This is why Daoist cultivation advocates neither indulgence nor suppression, but rather "each attaining its harmony, together issuing the tokens of governance"—yang energy follows yang's path, yin energy follows yin's path, neither overstepping nor encroaching, each residing in its proper place within a higher order. This sense of order, "acting without forcing yet leaving nothing undone," constitutes the highest aim of Daoist cultivation of mind and nature.
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This content is based on classical Daoist texts and is provided solely for traditional cultural study and life reflection. It does not constitute religious, medical, or investment advice.