On Yin-Yang Generation and Restraint (Yin Yang Sheng Ke)

Generation and Restraint Do the Same Work

Shen first pairs the two forces that shape the year: the cycle of generation that keeps the seasons coming, and the restraint that stops each one short so the next can begin. He then divides restraint itself. Water that feeds wood yields both a proper and an oblique seal; metal that cuts wood yields both the officer and the killings, one worthy and one ill-omened. Because those two names are so easily blurred, and because the whole method of the eight structures turns on telling them apart, he works through jia, yi, geng and xin stem by stem.