Yin Fû King, or 'Classic of the Harmony of the Seen and the Unseen.'
Translated by James Legge, 1891

[In the Khien-lung Catalogue of the Imperial Library, ch. 146, Part iii, this 
Book occupies the first place among all Tâoist works, with three notices, which 
all precede the account of Ho-shang Kung's Commentary on the Tâo Teh King. From 
the work of Lâo-dze we are conducted along the course of Tâoist literature to 
the year 1626, when the catalogue of what is called 'the Tâoist Canon' appeared. 
Ch. 147 then returns to the Yin Fû King, and treats of nine other works upon it, 
the last being the Commentary of Lî Kwang-lî, one of the principal ministers and 
great scholars in the time of Khien-lung's grandfather, known as Khang-hsî from 
the name of his reign.]

[In the first of these many notices it is said that the preface of an old copy 
assigns the composition of the work to Hwang-Tî (in the 27th century B.C.), and 
says that commentaries on it had been made by Thâi-kung (12th century B.C.), Fan 
Lî (5th century B.C.), the Recluse of the Kwei Valley (4th century B.C.), 
Kang Liang (died B.C. 189), Kû Ko Liang (A.D. 181-234), and Lî Khwan of the 
Thang dynasty (about the middle of our 8th century). Some writers, going back to 
the time of Hwang-Tî for the composition of our small classic, attribute it not 
to that sovereign himself, but to his teacher Kwang Khäng-dze and many of them 
hold that this Kwang Khäng-dze was an early incarnation of Lâo-dze himself, so 
that the Yin Fû might well be placed before the Tâo Teh King! Lî Hsî-yüeh is one 
of the scholars who adopt this view.]

[I will not say that under the Kâu dynasty there was no book called Yin Fû, with 
a commentary ascribed to Thâi-kung[1], for Sze-mâ Khien, in his biography of Sû 
Khin (Bk. lxix), relates how that adventurer obtained 'the Yin Fû book of Kâu,' 
and a passage in the 'Plans of the Warring States' tells us that the book 
contained 'the schemes of Thâi-kung.' However this may have been, no such work 
is now extant. Of all the old commentaries on it mentioned in the Khien-lung 
Catalogue, the only one remaining is the last, --that of 
Lî Khwan; and the account which we have of it is not to be readily accepted and 
relied on.]

[The story goes that in A.D. 441 Khâu Khien-kih, who had usurped the dignity and 
title of Patriarch from the Kang family, deposited a copy of the Yin Fû King in 
a mountain cave. There it remained for about three centuries and a half, till it 
was discovered by Lî Khwan, a Tâoist scholar, not a little damaged by its long 
exposure. He copied it out as well as he could, but could not understand it, 
till at last, wandering in the distant West, he met with an old woman, who made 
the meaning clear to him, at the foot of mount Lî; after which he published the 
Text with a Commentary, and finally died, a wanderer among the hills in quest of 
the Tâo; but the place of his death was never known.]

[The Classic, as it now exists, therefore cannot be traced higher than our 
eighth century; and many critics hold that, as the commentary was made by Lî 
Khwan, so the text was forged by him. All that Hsî-yüeh has to say in reply to 
this is that, if the classic be the work of Lî Khwan, then we must think of him 
as another Kwang Khäng-dze; but this is no answer to the charge of forgery.

[As to the name of the Treatise, the force of Fû has been set forth in vol. 
xxxix, p. 133, in connexion with the title of Kwang-dze's fifth Book. The 
meaning which I have given of the whole is substantially that of Li 
Hsî-yüeh, who says that the Yin must be understood as including Yang, and 
grounds his criticism on the famous dictum in the Great Appendix to the Yî King 
(vol. xvi, p. 355), 'The successive movement of the Yin and Yang (their rest and 
active operation) constitutes what is called the course (of things).' Mr. 
Balfour translates the title by 'The Clue to the Unseen,' which is ingenious, 
but may be misleading. The writer reasons rather from the Unseen to the Seen 
than from the Seen to the Unseen.]

[Mr. Wylie gives his view of the object of the Treatise in these words: --'This 
short Treatise, which is not entirely free from the obscurity of Tâoist 
mysticism, professes to reconcile the decrees of Heaven with the current of 
mundane affairs.' To what extent the Book does this, and whether successfully or 
not, the reader will be able to judge for himself from the translation which 
will be immediately subjoined. Li Hsî-yüeh, looking at it simply from its 
practical object, pronounces it 'hsiû lien kih Shû, a Book of culture and 
refining.' This language suggests the idea of a Tâoist devotee, who has 
sublimated himself by the study of this Book till he is ready to pass into the 
state of an Immortal. I must be permitted to say, however, that the whole 
Treatise appears to me to have come down to us in a fragmentary condition, with 
passages that are incapable of any satisfactory explanation.]

Chapter 1
1. If one observes the Way of Heaven, and maintains Its doings (as his own), all 
that he has to do is accomplished.

2. To Heaven there belong the five (mutual) foes[1], and he who sees them (and 
understands their operation) apprehends how they produce prosperity. The same 
five foes are in the mind of man, and when he can set them in action after the 
manner of Heaven, all space and time are at his disposal, and all things receive 
their transformations from his person[2].

[1. The startling name thieves (= foes, robbers) here is understood to mean the 
'five elements,' which pervade and indeed make up the whole realm of nature, the 
heaven of the text including also earth, the other term in the binomial 
combination of 'heaven and earth.' According to the Tâoist teaching, the element 
of Earth generates Metal, and overcomes Water; Metal generates Water, and 
overcomes Wood; Water generates Wood, and overcomes Fire; Wood generates Fire, 
and overcomes Earth. These elements fight and strive together, now overcoming, 
now overcome, till by such interaction a harmony of their influences arises, and 
production goes on with vigour and beauty.]

[2. It is more difficult to give an account of the operation of the five 
elements in the mind of man, though I have seen them distributed among the five 
viscera, and the five virtues of Benevolence, Righteousness, Propriety, 
Knowledge, and Faith. Granting, however, their presence and operation in the 
mind, what shall be said on the two concluding members of the paragraph? There 
underlies them the doctrine of the three coordinate Powers; --Heaven, Earth, and 
Man, which I have never been able to comprehend clearly.]

3. The nature of Heaven belongs (also) to Man; the mind of Man is a spring (of 
power). When the Way of Heaven is established, the (Course of) Man is thereby 
determined.

4. When Heaven puts forth its power of putting to death, the stars and 
constellations lie hidden in darkness. When Earth puts forth its power of 
putting to death, dragons and serpents appear on the dry ground. When Man puts 
forth his power of putting to death, Heaven and Earth resume their (proper 
course). When Heaven and Man exert their powers in concert, all transformations 
have their commencements determined.

5. The nature (of man) is here clever and there stupid; and the one of these 
qualities may lie hidden in the other. The abuse of the nine apertures is 
(chiefly) in the three most important, which may be now in movement and now at 
rest. When fire arises in wood, the evil, having once begun, is sure to go on to 
the destruction of the wood. When calamity arises in a state, if thereafter 
movement ensue, it is sure to go to ruin. When one conducts the work of culture 
and refining wisely we call him a Sage..

Chaper 2
1. For Heaven now to give life and now to take it away is the method of the Tâo. 
Heaven and Earth are the despoilers of all things; all things are the despoilers 
of Man; and Man is the despoiler of all things. When the three despoilers act as 
they ought to do, as the three Powers, they are at rest. Hence it is said, 
'During the time of nourishment, all the members are properly regulated; when 
the springs of motion come into play, all transformations quietly take place.'

2. Men know the mysteriousness of the Spirit's (action), but they do not know 
how what is not Spiritual comes to be so. The sun and moon have their definite 
times, and their exact measures as large and small. The service of the sages 
hereupon arises, and the spiritual intelligence becomes apparent.

3. The spring by which the despoilers are moved is invisible and unknown to all 
under the sky. When the superior man has got it, he strengthens his body by it; 
when the small man has got it, he makes light of his life.

Chapter 3
1. The blind hear well, and the deaf see well. To derive all that is 
advantageous from one source is ten times better than the employment of a host; 
to do this thrice in a day and night is a myriad times better.

2. The mind is quickened (to activity) by (external) things, and dies through 
(excessive pursuit of) them. The spring (of the mind's activity) is in the eyes.
Heaven has no (special feeling of) kindness, but so it is that the greatest 
kindness comes from It. The crash of thunder and the blustering wind both come 
without design.

3. Perfect enjoyment is the overflowing satisfaction of the nature. Perfect 
stillness is the entire disinterestedness of it. When Heaven seems to be most 
wrapt up in Itself, Its operation is universal in its character.

4. It is by its breath that we control whatever creature we grasp. Life is the 
root of death, and death is the root of life. Kindness springs from injury, and 
injury springs from kindness. He who sinks himself in water or enters amidst 
fire brings destruction on himself.

5. The stupid man by studying the phenomena and laws of heaven and earth becomes 
sage; I by studying their times and productions become intelligent. He in his 
stupidity is perplexed about sageness; I in my freedom from stupidity am the 
same. He considers his sageness as being an extraordinary attainment; I do not 
consider mine so.

6. The method of spontaneity proceeds in stillness, and so it was that heaven, 
earth, and all things were produced. The method of heaven and earth proceeds 
gently and gradually, and thus it is that the Yin and Yang overcome (each other 
by turns). The one takes the place of the other, and so change and 
transformation proceed accordingly.

7. Therefore the sages, knowing that the method of spontaneity cannot be 
resisted, take action accordingly and regulate it (for the purpose of culture). 
The way of perfect stillness cannot be subjected to numerical calculations; but 
it would seem that there is a wonderful machinery, by which all the heavenly 
bodies are produced, the eight diagrams, and the sexagenary cycle; spirit-like 
springs of power, and hidden ghostlinesses; the arts of the Yin and Yang in the 
victories of the one over the other: --all these come brightly forward into 
visibility.


[I cannot say that I fully understand this concluding paragraph of the Yin Fû 
King. One thing is plain from it -- how the Yî King was pressed into the service 
of the Tâoism that prevailed when it was written. I leave it with the judgment 
on it, quoted by Lî Hsî-yüeh from a Lû Zhien-hsü. 'The subject-matter of the Yin 
Fû and Tâo Teh is all intended to set forth the action by contraries of the 
despoiling powers in nature and society. As to finding in them directions for 
the government of states, the conduct of war, and the mastery of the kingdom, 
with such expressions as those about a wonderful machinery by which the heavenly 
bodies are produced, the eight diagrams, the cycle, spirit-like springs, and 
hidden ghostlinesses: --they all have a deep meaning, but men do not know it. 
They who go to the Yin Fû for direction in war and use Lâo-dze for guidance in 
government go far astray from the meaning of both.']