Section 49.1
The constancy of Heaven’s Way is for there to be one yin and one yang.
Yang is Heaven’s accretion;
yin is Heaven’s recision.
If you trace the circuits of yin and yang through to the end of the year, you will thereby observe what Heaven draws near to and relies on. [Yin assists yang] to complete Heaven’s achievements, and yet it is still designated “empty,” for emptiness is its substance. Therefore, clear [weather] and coolness are to the year what sourness and saltiness are to taste: just enough is all that is needed. The governance of the sage also follows [circumstances] and so is like this.
The Lesser Yin of Heaven is used in activity;
the Greater Yin of Heaven is used in idleness.
The Lesser Yin of human beings is used in sternness;
the Greater Yin of human beings is used in mournfulness.
Mournfulness is likewise idleness.
Idleness is likewise mournfulness.
For this reason, the Way of Heaven relies on three seasons to complete life and one season to mourn death.
Death refers to the withering and decay of the many things;
mourning refers to the grief and sorrow of the yin qi.
Heaven also possesses happy and angry qi and a joyful and sorrowful heart that mutually complements those of human beings. Thus if a grouping is made according to kind, Heaven and human beings are one.
Spring is the
qi of happiness and therefore it engenders;
autumn is the qi of anger and therefore it kills;
summer is the qi of joy and therefore it nourishes;
winter is the qi of sorrow and therefore it stores away.
These four are the possessions of Heaven and human beings alike. [Heaven and human beings] possess these principles and are therefore unitary.
Those who use them similarly to Heaven will [engender] great order;
those who use them differently from Heaven [will engender] great disorder.
Therefore when constituting the Way of one who would rule others, nothing is more enlightened than to unify the self with Heaven and use things as Heaven does.
[The ruler] must ensure that his happiness and anger will be displayed only in accordance with righteousness, just as chilling and heating will issue forth only in accordance with the proper season.
1 He must ensure that he uses beneficence more generously than punishment, just as yang exceeds yin. This is why,
in circulating yin qi, Heaven appropriates only a small amount of yin to bring autumn to completion while it assigns the remainder to winter;
in circulating yin qi, the sage appropriates only a small amount of yin to establish his sternness while he assigns the rest to mournfulness.
Mournfulness is also the winter qi of human beings. Thus
the Greater Yin of human beings is not used for punishing but for mourning;
the Greater Yin of Heaven is not used for things but for emptiness.
Emptiness constitutes mourning;
mourning constitutes emptiness.
Their substance is one. Both [exemplify] the heart that mourns death and loss. [49/55/7–18]