Signs of Water and Fire and the Pathways of Up, Down, Left, and Right
The two key statements from the Inner Canon are further elaborated in chapters of the Outer Canon of the Yellow Emperor, including “Inversion of Yin and Yang,” “The Rising and Descending of Water and Fire,” “Water and Fire in the Zang,” and “Mutual Governance of Water and Fire.”
The central idea is the mutual rooting of Water and Fire and the mutual containment of true Yin and true Yang at the Gate of Life. “Water and Fire in the Zang” emphasizes: “Water and Fire are not two separate things. Divided, they are called Water and Fire; united, they are one qi.”
What the Waijing Weiyan makes especially clear is the relationship Water–Fire × upward/downward movement × pathway.
The deeper meaning of Water–Fire signs should be placed within the Suwen: Liu Wei Zhi Da Lun structure of root (ben), manifestation (biao), and central qi (zhong qi). The Inner Canon abstracts three highly stable conjugate axes among the Six Qi:
- Taiyang Cold-Water ↔ Shaoyin Sovereign-Fire
- Yangming Dryness-Metal ↔ Taiyin Dampness-Earth
- Jueyin Wind-Wood ↔ Shaoyang Ministerial-Fire
Accordingly, a concrete expression of the Water–Fire relation is that Shaoyin Sovereign-Fire is seen within Taiyang Cold-Water, while Taiyang Cold-Water is seen within Shaoyin Sovereign-Fire.
“The left and right are the pathways of Yin and Yang” appears in the Suwen: Yin Yang Ying Xiang Da Lun. The Suwen: Tian Yuan Ji Da Lun then places left and right within the larger Five-Movements-and-Six-Qi framework of upper/lower resonance, while the Suwen: Wu Yun Xing Da Lun further states:
“What is above moves to the right; what is below moves to the left. Left and right complete the circuit of Heaven and then meet again.”
The left–right pathway can therefore be understood as the route traced by the Three Yin–Three Yang as they take turns occupying Heavenly Administration and Terrestrial Effect—the “Ferris wheel” between Heaven and Earth used as an explanatory image in this project. The existence of left and right interposed qi provides an even more direct expression of this structure.