Volume 1: Celestial Laws (Tong Shen Lun) · Chapter 3
The Human Way (Ren Dao)
Attributed to Jing Tu (Song); commentary tradition by Liu Bowen (Ming)
A human being between two powers
A person stands with heaven above and earth below — the only one of the three that can go with the current or against it. The line does not say that obedience brings fortune in a moral sense; it says that a life aligned with its own season moves easily, and a life fighting its own chart meets resistance at every turn. This is the book's framing for free will: the chart gives the current, the person chooses the stroke.
Classical Verse & Annotated Translation
Line-by-line alignment between Classical Chinese and precise English translation.
戴天履地人为贵,顺则吉兮凶则悖。
Note: 戴天履地:人居天地之中,为三才之贵。顺:顺应气机之进退;悖:违逆时势。此处「吉凶」指顺逆之效验,非道德褒贬。
Carrying heaven on the head and treading earth underfoot, the human being is the precious one: to go along brings fortune, to oppose brings adversity.
Does your natal chart carry this sacred energy?
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