太玄 Esoteric Truths

《道德經 - 十四》

視之不見，名曰夷；

聽之不聞，名曰希；

搏之不得，名曰微。
此三者不可致詰，故混而為一。
其上不皦，其下不昧。

繩繩不可名，復歸於無物。
是謂無狀之狀，無物之象，是謂惚恍。
迎之不見其首，隨之不見其後。
執古之道，以御今之有。
能知古始，是謂道紀。

(The manifestation of the mystery)

We look at it, and we do not see it, and we name it 'the Equable.'

We listen to it, and we do not hear it, and we name it 'the Inaudible.'

We try to grasp it, and do not get hold of it, and we name it 'the Subtle.'

With these three qualities, it cannot be made the subject of description; and hence we blend them together and obtain The One.

Its upper part is not bright, and its lower part is not obscure.

Ceaseless in its action, it yet cannot be named, and then it again returns and becomes nothing.

This is called the Form of the Formless, and the Semblance of the Invisible; this is called the Fleeting and Indeterminable.

We meet it and do not see its Front; we follow it, and do not see its Back.

When we can lay hold of the Dao of old to direct the things of the present day, and are able to know it as it was of old in the beginning, this is called (unwinding) the clue of Dao.

14

That object upon which you gaze yet do not see is called the Invisible;
That sound to which you listen but do not hear is called the Inaudible;
That thing for which your hand gropes yet fails to touch is called the Intangible.
The scrutinising of these three imponderables cannot be carried further:
the mind perceives them blend in One.
This Unity seen from above does not shine,
Nor, seen from below, is it dark.
It goes back through Time in an unbroken chain of countless links
Till it reaches Non-Existence.
It is the Formless Form, the Image of the Unimaginable.
It is the Inscrutable.
Advance towards it, and it shows no front;
Follow it, and it shows no front;
Follow it, and it shows no back.
Yet by laying hold of this Ancient Truth you can master your present existence.
For to understand the mystery of the Beginning
Is to hold the key to the Dao.

太玄經, the Tàixuánjīng is a divinatory text similar to, and inspired by, the 易經 (Yijing). Whereas the 易經 is based on 64 binary hexagrams (sequences of six horizontal lines each of which may be broken or unbroken), the 太玄經 employs 81 ternary tetragrams (sequences of four lines, each of which may be unbroken, broken once, or broken twice). Like the 易經 it may be consulted as an oracle by casting yarrow stalks or a six-faced die to generate numbers which define the lines of a tetragram, which can then be looked up in the text. A tetragram drawn without moving lines refers to the tetragram description, while a tetragram drawn with moving lines refers to the specific lines.

The monograms are:

• the unbroken line ( ⚊) for heaven (天 tiān),
• once broken line ( ⚋) for earth (地 dì),
• twice broken line ( 𝌀) for man (人 rén).

Numerically the symbols can be counted as ⚊ = 0, ⚋ = 1, 𝌀 = 2, and grouped into sets of four to count from 0 to 80. This is clearly intentional as this passage from chapter 8 of the 太玄經 points out the principle of carrying and place value.

Chinese	English
推玄筭： 家 一置一，二置二，三置三。 部 一勿增，二增三，三增六。 州 一勿增，二增九，三增十八。 方 一勿增，二增二十七，三增五十四	Push Profound Calculation: First Part: one sets one, two sets two, three sets three. Second Part: one doesn't add, two adds three, three adds six. Third Part: one doesn't add, two adds nine, three adds eighteen. Fourth Part: one doesn't add, two adds twenty-seven, three adds fifty-four.