The Artisan and the Charioteer (original) (raw)

Enfolding and encompassing the Way of Yin and Yang
is like being an artisan and a charioteer
who level the marking-cord and the plumb-line,
hold the bit and the bridle,
align the compass and the square,
and follow the tracks and the ruts.

Abide in the Center to control the outside: the numbers are found in the system of the pitch-pipes and the calendar.(1)

Source: Cantong qi (Seal of the Unity of the Three), poem 2.

Notes

(1) "Pitch-pipes and calendar" (lüli) refers not only in a literal sense to the musical and calendrical emblems, but also in an extended sense to the whole range of cosmological emblems.

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