《黄帝阴符经注(侯善渊)》

The Great Dao (Dao, the Way) has no fixed traces. The more one tries to fathom it completely, the more profound and remote it appears. The supreme true Dao is not dominated by any power; the more one attempts to measure it, the more mysterious and unfathomable it becomes. Mysterious, subtle, and hidden, it contains all manner of marvelous principles. Who can grasp it in advance? The Huangdi Yinfu Jing (Yellow Emperor’s Scripture of the Hidden Talisman) speaks precisely of this principle.

The term “Yin” refers to the inner yin-spiritual nature inherently possessed within; the term “Fu” refers to outer correspondence and union with the pure and unified Dao. Upon reaching the realm of supreme truth, one can connect upward with the Three Essentials (key body-mind apertures in Daoism). In this way the upright Qi (vital energy) can press downward to subdue deviant Qi in the Nine Orifices (the nine apertures of the human body). Therefore the principle of life and death hinges on the eyes. If they remain unobstructed, one can observe the Heavenly Dao and manifest the brightness of Shen (spirit). This is called mastering the operation of the Heavenly Dao. All the cultivation practices discussed in the scripture ultimately reach completion here.

Commentary on the Huangdi Yinfu Jing

“Yinfu” means the original nature uniting with the pure and unified Dao.

Annotated by Hou Shanyuan, Taixuanzi of Mount Guye.

To observe the Heavenly Dao is to perceive the marvelous transformations and cause the heart-Qi to accord with the clear, still, and yang-harmonious Qi.

Mastering the operation of the Heavenly Dao, the entire cultivation work is contained therein.

The communication of De (Virtue/Power) with the Heavenly Dao is the crucial point here.

Heaven has Five Thieves; those who discern them can flourish.

If the operation of the Five Phases (Wood, Fire, Earth, Metal, Water) loses its constant order, it injures a person’s nature and life. When the Five Shen are thoroughly illuminated and operate properly, those who understand this can flourish.

The Five Thieves reside in the heart and are enacted in Heaven.

The Five Thieves of the Heavenly Dao originally exist within the human heart; when the heart communicates with the Five Shen, one can accord with the operation of the Heavenly Dao.

The universe in one’s hands: those of numinous and bright nature can flourish.

If the operation of the Five Phases loses its constant order, it injures a person’s nature and life. When the Five Shen are thoroughly illuminated and operate properly, those who understand this can flourish.

The Five Thieves reside in the heart and are enacted in Heaven.

The five functions inherent in the timing of Heaven originally have their roots in the human heart-mind. The human heart-mind communicates with the five Shen (spirits) and operates in accordance with the Dao (the Way) of Heaven.

The operations and transformations of the cosmos seem as if they can be grasped in the palm of the hand; the marvelous pivot of numinous functioning turns and changes as if one were lifting the very key of heaven and earth.

The transformations of the myriad things all arise from within the human body and mind. The myriad Shen thereby attain communication and transformation; taking the Dao as their substance, they can be manifested in one’s own person.

The innate nature endowed by Heaven resides in the human being; the human heart-mind is the pivot that employs this nature. Because the human heart-mind and heavenly nature share the same De (Virtue/Power), the human heart-mind can serve as the mechanism through which the Dao of Heaven operates.

The establishment of the standards of the Dao of Heaven serves to stabilize the human heart-mind. The Dao of Heaven is Wuwei (non-action), operating independently without alteration; because the human Dao communicates with the Dao of Heaven, it is able to bring stability to the human heart-mind.

When the timing of Heaven reveals the mechanism of killing and attacking, dragons and snakes emerge from their places of concealment. Dragons and snakes likewise receive the nature of heaven and earth; their appearance upon the earth is the enactment of the mechanisms of growth and of autumnal killing belonging to heaven and earth.

When human beings activate the mechanism of killing and attacking, heaven and earth overturn in response. When humans carry out executions, heaven and earth appear to turn upside down; this is heaven and humanity jointly setting in motion the pivot of transformation.

When heaven and humanity jointly activate this pivot, the foundations of the myriad transformations are thereby laid. Human nature accords with heavenly nature; however good or evil may change, each has its own foundation.

Human nature distinguishes between cleverness and dullness, and both may also remain hidden. Natures of cleverness and clumsiness are all generated by the Dao; therefore, when heaven and humanity jointly set transformations in motion, each likewise has its own principle and each remains concealed.

The perversities of the nine orifices (the two eyes, two ears, two nostrils, the mouth, and the two lower orifices) appear as ears that fail to hear clearly and eyes that fail to see clearly, with Jing (essence) and Qi (vital energy) dissipating of their own accord. How then can one return to the correct Dao?

The key lies in the “three essentials”: first, the origin of the Great Beginning (the primordial original Qi); second, the nature that illuminates and penetrates all; third, the condensation of fetal light (the original numinous radiance of the person). To govern body and mind by means of these three is the essential of the ultimate Dao.

Thereby one may respond to both movement and stillness. In stillness the Great Dao is silent and without mind; in movement the marvelous functioning is activated through resonance and attains the mysterious.

Fire is stored within wood; once calamity breaks out, the wood is burned. Human nature is the same: if it is obscured by ignorance, the true nature is lost of itself.

When treachery and evil arise within the state, the times become dark and difficult to discern. Fire is stored within wood; once calamity breaks out, the wood is burned.

Fire is hidden within wood; once the fire takes hold, the wood burns to ashes. If a person possesses an original nature yet becomes lost through ignorance (the inability to comprehend principles), they too will of themselves forfeit their true nature. Once treachery and wickedness take root within a state, when the moment arrives the state will inevitably collapse. If the cultivation of the self is not upright, the spirit (Shen) will scatter and perish. Those who understand these principles and cultivate them are called sages.

Those who understand the principles of existence and extinction and never deviate from the correct Dao (the Way) can skillfully nourish the primordial Shen (the fundamental spirit of a person); thereby they can unite above with the Dao of emptiness. This is the De (Virtue) of the sage.

Heaven causes the ten thousand things to live and also causes them to die; this is the law of the Dao. To live is to live in accordance with the Heavenly Dao; to die is to perish in accordance with the Heavenly Dao. The pivotal transformations of life and death are, at bottom, all principles of the ultimate Dao.

Heaven and Earth are the source from which the ten thousand things grow and transform; the ten thousand things receive conditions from Heaven and Earth and change according to those conditions. The ten thousand things are also taken and used by humans. Humans take and use the ten thousand things in order to seek survival. Humans are likewise constrained by the ten thousand things. When things develop to their extreme they reverse, and ultimately they rebound upon humans. Heaven and Earth, the ten thousand things, and humans mutually take and use one another; each remains within proper measure, and only then can the Three Powers (Heaven, Earth, and Humanity) be at peace.

Therefore it is said that one should take food according to the seasons, so that the functioning of the spirit does not lose its proper measure. When the hundred bones of the entire body (all parts of the body) are properly regulated and movement follows the key points of the body's functioning, the transformations of the ten thousand things can be at peace. When a person's hundred passes (the various orifices of the body) remain normal, movement can accord with the mechanisms of the body; by guarding the pure and true original nature and penetrating transformation, the myriad changes can each find their peace.

If a person knows only to pursue external transformations and miraculous affairs, they will deviate from the orthodox. The fundamental reality of the marvelous Dao has always been present; it is simply that people fail to notice it in everyday life. The so-called “not Shen yet Shen” means not chasing after external marvels, and thereby the innate natural truth one already possesses can be manifested.

The sun and moon each have their fixed numbers in their courses; their orbits proceed according to the seasons, and the transformations of light also accord with those fixed numbers. Things have distinctions of large and small, and each has its own standard. The Dao of ultimate Shen penetrates the laws of nature, and the measures it establishes are also fitting and appropriate. The accomplishments of the sage arise from this; the primordial Shen manifests transformations, and the ultimate Dao is thereby revealed.

Shenming (the marvelous luminous functioning of spirit) thereby appears: the eyes have no disease, and it seems as if there were another body outside the body. This refers to the crucial mechanism of the Dao—when Shenming manifests transformations, it is taking and using the mysteries of the operations of Heaven and Earth.

There is no one under Heaven who cannot see...

All things come into being by following the transformations of creation, and the innate nature of each is thereby made manifest. This is what it means to abide in the ultimate Dao (the Way).

Yet people often fail to recognize this: the Dao operates at every moment in everyday life, but they have not grasped the principle contained within it.

When the exemplary person comprehends it, he is able to remain content in honest poverty and to devote himself single-mindedly to drawing near the principle. When the petty person comprehends it, he does not follow it with concentration, but turns away from the principle in order to nourish the physical body, thereby holding his own nature and life in contempt.

A blind person, though unable to see, is skilled at listening; a deaf person, though unable to hear, is skilled at observing. When one of a person’s sensory faculties is obstructed, another mode of perception may become even more acute.

One must cut off greedy desire for the benefits of external things, concentrate the mind in a single place, and hold fast to the Dao of single-minded unity. The attainments of cultivation will then increase tenfold.

Practice the cultivation repeatedly, day and night, so that the spirit-brightness accords with the imperial Dao and the ultimate Dao interpenetrates throughout. Cause the “Three-One” to return to Hunyuan (the undifferentiated primordial source), and do not deviate from the correct Dao day or night. Cultivation will then yield results ten thousand times greater.

The mind undergoes change because of external things; clinging to them, the Shen (spirit) cannot dwell in peace within the mysterious and wondrous realm. The mind likewise, through attachment to external things, proceeds into the cycle of birth and death. The crucial point lies in the eyes: the eyes are the gateway through which the five spirits enter and exit, and the opening and closing of the eyes concerns the vital mechanism of life and death.

Heaven does not confer its favors upon the myriad things in a deliberate, intentional manner, yet from this the myriad things are transformed and generated, and the greatest of favors thereby comes into being. When thunder resounds violently and gales arise suddenly, nothing among the myriad things fails to tremble in response; these too are expressions of being born through receiving the great grace of Heaven and Earth.

In utmost joy, the innate nature of the myriad things is full and overflowing; in utmost stillness, they abide in the constant Dao, clear, still, and undisturbed. The Heavenly Dao is most profound and secret, without partiality, yet its operation is most impartial: precisely because it harbors no private intent, it is able to bring about the growth and transformation of each of the myriad things according to its own nature.

The key to subduing birds and beasts lies in Qi (vital energy).

When things become clear in the inner heart, they can manifest the function of marvelous transformation.

The Dao (the Way) of Heaven is utterly without selfishness, yet in its operation it is utterly just.

The profound De (Virtue/Power) of Heaven’s Dao has no partiality, and thus it can fulfill the inherent nature of each of the ten thousand things. There is no function that does not issue from the Dao of Heaven, and therefore the Dao of Heaven can attain the utmost justice.

The key to grasping and controlling things lies in Qi (vital energy), the life force by which all things operate.

Do the spirit-realized Zhenren (realized persons who have attained the Dao), transforming into immortals and soaring aloft, receive the upright Qi of Heaven and Earth? Is this so?

Life is the root of death. Death that enters into life then proceeds from death toward life.

Death is the root of life. Life that enters into death then proceeds from life toward death.

Blessing arises from calamity.

The Dao bestows grace and De, yet the inherent nature of the ten thousand things may bring calamity; from calamity blessing is born, and thus within fortune misfortune also lies hidden.

Calamity arises from blessing.

The inherent nature of the ten thousand things operates according to transformation; after receiving grace and De, blessing may also give rise to calamity, and thus within misfortune there is also fortune upon which to rely.

When the foolish person employs the beautiful and good principles of Heaven and Earth, they can become a sage.

Here “yong” means to employ; “wen” means the beautiful and good. If one can employ the beautiful and good principles of Heaven and Earth—that is, the orthodox Dao—penetrate the principle of Wuwei (non-action), and comprehend the profound transformations, one can proceed from the ordinary toward the sagely realm. This is called the Ultimate Truth.

I employ things that accord with the times and understand the principle within them.

The person of wisdom is skilled at grasping the circumstances of the times and things, and at rectifying their own wisdom. The sage employs the circumstances of the times and things, accords with the orthodox Dao within them, penetrates Wuwei, comprehends the profound transformations, and proceeds from the ordinary toward the sagely realm. This is called the Ultimate Truth.

I employ things that accord with the times and understand the principle within them.

The person of wisdom is skilled at grasping the circumstances of the times and things and at rectifying their own wisdom; yet if one merely employs the circumstances of the times and things and grasps the clever techniques within them, one may not necessarily attain the realm of the sage.

Others act by conjecture, taking folly for wisdom; I do not rely on conjecture and thereby manifest sagely illumination. Others expect themselves to become sages; I do not deliberately expect to become a sage. Therefore it is said that plunging into water and then throwing oneself into fire only brings self-destruction.

The Dao of nature is still and clear, and thus Heaven, Earth, and the ten thousand things are able to grow. The patterns of the operation of Heaven and Earth gradually unfold, and thus Yin-Yang wax and wane in relation to each other. Yin and Yang shift and displace one another, and transformation can then proceed smoothly. Therefore the sage knows that the Dao of nature cannot be opposed, and so accords with it in arranging affairs.

The extremely still and clear Dao cannot be fully matched by calendars and musical pitches. Thus there arose wondrous ritual implements, from which the ten thousand phenomena are generated. The Bagua (Eight Trigrams) and the Jiazi (the ancient system of symbols and chronological cycles used to deduce the transformations of Heaven and Earth) contain marvelous opportune changes and profound transformations. The laws by which Yin and Yang mutually constrain one another and wax and wane are clearly manifested among the ten thousand phenomena.