Section 57.1
Now if you pour water on level ground, it will avoid the dry area and run to the wet area, but if you expose two similar pieces of firewood to fire, the fire will avoid the wet piece and go to the dry one. All things avoid what is different from them and follow what is similar to them. Therefore,
if qi are the same in kind, they will come together;
if tones match, they will respond to each other.
This is clear from the evidence. Now suppose you tune and play a
qin or a
se:
1Pluck the note gong, and other gong notes will respond to it;
pluck the note
shang, and other
shang notes will respond to it.
2Among the five notes, each one that matches will sound spontaneously. This has nothing to do with spirits. Their regularities make them so.
A beautiful thing calls forth things that are beautiful in kind;
an ugly thing calls forth things that are ugly in kind,
for things of the same kind arise in response to each other. For example,
when a horse neighs, horses will respond;
when an ox lows, oxen will respond.
Similarly,
when an emperor or a king is about to arise, auspicious omens first will appear;
when he is about to perish, baleful omens first will appear.
Therefore things of the same kind call forth one another.
Because of the dragon, rain is produced.
By the use of the fan, heat is chased away.
Wherever armies are stationed, briars grow.
Whether beautiful or ugly, all things have their preordained genesis and destiny, but no one knows where they lie.
When the heavens darken and it is about to rain, people’s illnesses first will affect them, because their yin has been aroused in response. When the heavens seem about to darken and it is about to rain, people want to sleep. This is because of yin qi.
People who are anxious want to lie down, because the yin of anxiety and lying down seek each other;
people who are happy do not want to lie down because the yang of happiness and wakefulness require each other.
Water takes control over the nighttime and stretches out its allotted span; when the east wind arrives, wine ferments more vigorously. Those who are ill worsen at the arrival of night; cocks gather at first light, rousing one another with their crowing. [Different kinds of] qi become more and more refined. Therefore,
yang increases yang;
yin increases yin,
for the qi of yin and yang can naturally augment or diminish things in accordance with their kind.
Heaven has yin and yang [aspects],
and people have yin and yang [aspects].
When the qi of Heaven and Earth arises, the qi of people arises in response to it;
when the qi of people arises, the qi of Heaven and Earth also arises appropriately in response to it.
Their Way is unitary. Those who understand this,
when wishing to bring forth rain, activate yin, causing yin to arise;
when wishing to stop rain, activate yang, causing yang to arise.
Therefore, rain is not caused by the spirits. People suspect that it is the spirits’ doing, because its inner principles are subtle and mysterious. It is not only that the
qi of yin and yang advances or withdraws according to its kind. Even [the reasons for] misfortune, calamities, and blessings are due to the same thing. It is not that these things do not initially arise from within the self, [but even so,] things become active in response to their kind. Therefore, those who are intelligent, sagely, and spiritlike look within and listen to themselves, so their words become intelligent and sagely. The reason why introspection and listening to oneself alone can lead to intelligence and sagacity is because one becomes aware that the original mind lies there. Therefore when the note
gong is plucked on a
qin or a
se, the note
gong on other [instruments nearby] sounds spontaneously in response. This is a case of things being activated according to kind. Their activity has sound but no form. People do not see a physical form associated with what activates them, so they say that they sound on their own. Furthermore, since they activate each other without [visible] form, it is said that they do so spontaneously. In reality, it is not that they do so spontaneously but that something causes them to be so. There is definitely something concrete that stimulates them, but what stimulates them has no [visible] form. According to a tradition of the
Documents, when the House of Zhou was about to arise, some big red crows holding seed heads of grain in their bills gathered on the roof of the king’s house. King Wu was elated, and all the great officers were elated. The Duke of Zhou said, “Make greater effort. Make greater effort. Heaven reveals this to exhort us.”
3 Fearfully we heed this. [57/59/17–57/60/5]