The Five Ranks

The Partial Within the True:

The blue sky clears and the River of Stars' cool flood dries up.
At midnight the wooden boy pounds on the moon's door.
In darkness the jade woman is startled from her sleep.

The True Within the Partial:

Ocean and clouds rendezvous at the top of spirit mountain.
The old woman returns, hair hanging down like white silk,
And shyly faces the mirror coldly reflecting her image.

Coming from Within the True:

In moonlit night the huge sea monster sheds its scales.
Its great back rubs the heavens, and it scatters clouds with its wing feathers.
Soaring here and there along the bird's path - difficult to classify.

Coming from Within Both Together:

Meeting face to face we need not shun each other's names.
In the changing wind, no injury to the profound meaning.
In the light, a road to the natural differences.

Arriving Within Both Together:

The Big Dipper slants across the sky before dawn.
In dewy cold the crane begins to waken from its dreams.
As it flies out of the old nest, the pine tree up in the clouds topples.

Hongzhi Zhengjue (1091-1157)
trans. Taigen Daniel Leighton & Yi Wu