The Two Pillars

AnonymousBashu Publishing House · ChinaJul 2024

2.6

Word count: 1.1K words
Chapters: 2

Summary

Like a bowl or a basin, a bottle or a pot, a jar or a crock, each can embody Heaven and Earth. Tortoise shells and yarrow stalks, broken tiles and patterned stones—all can reveal fortune and misfortune. Thus one knows that the ten thousand things of Heaven and Earth possess an inner order: one thing contains it, and every thing contains it, each without borrowing from another. With the essence of myself, I join the essence of the other. When the two essences meet, spirit responds. Male and female pair, and eggs are born; male and female pair, and young are carried and born. Form is the other’s essence; order is the other’s spirit; love is my essence; contemplation is my spirit. Love is water; contemplation is fire. Love held fast, and contemplation following it, becomes wood; contemplation abiding, and love gathered into it, becomes metal. First conceive of the single primal qi as fully present in one thing, held fast. Join it with love to match the other’s form; observe it in obscure contemplation to match the other’s order—then the image is present. The image of a single movement circles through the great void: rising from the center, it becomes Heaven; descending from the center, it becomes Earth. Nothing rises without descending; nothing descends without rising. What rises is fire; what descends is water. What wishes to rise but cannot rise is wood; what wishes to descend but cannot descend is metal. As for wood: drill it and obtain fire; twist it and obtain water. As for metal: strike it and obtain fire; set it apart and obtain water. Metal and wood are the junction of water and fire. Water is essence and Heaven; fire is spirit and Earth; wood is the soul and man; metal is the animal soul and things.

Editor's review

With extreme concision, Er Zhu carries a classical scheme concerning the generation and mutual response of heaven, earth, and the myriad things. It begins with everyday vessels—bowls, basins, bottles, pots—and divination tools such as turtle shells and yarrow, along with tiles and stones, to illustrate the principle that "one thing contains it, and every thing contains it," then discusses the correspondences between essence and spirit, form and principle, love and contemplation, and uses water, fire, wood, and metal to explain rising and descending, conjunction, and human generation. Its value lies not in offering operable divination methods but in presenting a mode of thinking that understands the world through analogy and resonance. The text is terse and dense with images, suited to slow, careful reading. Readers interested in ancient philosophy, Yijing thought, or the idea of heaven-human resonance may read it as a short intellectual essay, attending to the core thread "join the essence of myself with the essence of the other," without rushing to fix every sentence as a definitive conclusion.

Who it's for

A good fit for

General readers interested in ancient philosophy and Yijing thought
Readers who want to understand classical concepts such as heaven-human resonance and essence, form, principle, and spirit
Readers who enjoy short intellectual texts and are willing to read slowly and carefully
People engaged in popularizing traditional culture or writing who need imagery material

Not a good fit for

Readers seeking a concrete guide to divination practice
Readers who prefer plot-driven narratives or character stories
Beginners who need a systematic philosophy-history textbook-style explanation

Reading tips

Read through once, marking recurring images such as bowls, basins, bottles, pots, water, fire, wood, and metal, then return to see how they correspond.
Take "join the essence of myself with the essence of the other" as the main thread, and ask paragraph by paragraph how the author uses analogy to establish links between things and things, and between humans and heaven and earth.
When encountering terms such as rising and descending or conjunction, understand them in light of the yin-yang and five-phases framework from public-domain common knowledge; do not insist that every sentence have a single interpretation.
After reading, restate in your own words the meaning of "one thing contains it, and every thing contains it" to test whether you have grasped the overall thread.

About the publisher

Bashu Publishing House China · Founded in 1983

Bashu Publishing House is a publisher centered on collating and publishing classical Chinese cultural texts, with its main publishing areas covering classical literature, Eastern philosophy, ancient poetry, and educational classics. Its library currently holds 1,075 titles, including representative works such as Dream of the Red Chamber, the Preface to the Orchid Pavilion Gathering, Renjian Cihua, and Out to the Frontier, involving authors such as Cao Xueqin, Wang Xizhi, Wang Guowei, Wang Changling, Liu Xie, and Yan Yu. These reflect the publisher's focus on literary classics, poetry criticism, and philosophical readings. Its publishing character lies in working around ancient texts and canonical works, with attention to textual collation and presentation. Public information on its more detailed publishing background and series plans is limited; this introduction is based only on the library's book information.

版权信息
二柱柱者，建天地也。

FAQ

What is this text mainly about?

It begins with everyday vessels and divination tools and discusses how the myriad things each have their principle and can resonate with one another; it then uses concepts such as essence and spirit, form and principle, love and contemplation, and water, fire, wood, and metal to explain the generation and connections of heaven, earth, and the myriad things. Its core is the analogical thinking of "one thing contains it, and every thing contains it."

Do I need a foundation in Yijing studies before reading?

Not necessarily. Although the text mentions turtle shells, yarrow, fortune and misfortune, its focus is on the mode of thinking rather than specific divination techniques. Some basic knowledge of yin-yang, the five phases, and heaven-human resonance will help, but without it you can still read the text as a short classical intellectual essay.

How should water, fire, wood, and metal in the text be understood?

The text associates water, fire, wood, and metal with essence, spirit, soul, animal soul, and with rising, descending, and conjunction; this belongs to a classical analogical system. When reading, regard them as a symbolic framework for explaining relations among things rather than as modern scientific categories; the point is to understand how the author uses them to connect the whole text.

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About the author

Anonymous Author

Anonymous is not a real personal name but a general Chinese designation for authors whose names are unknown, lost, or unsigned. Neither nationality nor dates of birth and death can be verified, and available public information is limited, so the works attributed to this name are the only basis for description. The collection holds 2,078 works under Anonymous, spanning medicine, classics, historical readings, ancient poetry, classical literature, and philosophy. Representative works include The Yellow Emperor's Inner Canon: Lingshu, Mencius, The Book of Documents, Nineteen Old Poems, Complete Song Ci, and The Peacock Flies Southeast. Most of these works took shape through long transmission and editing, emerging either from collective folk creation or from authors whose names were lost over time. In ancient China, the Book of Songs, the Great Learning, and many popular storybooks and plays were signed Anonymous because their authors could not be traced. Anonymous works cross the classics, histories, philosophical writings, medical texts, and poetry; their subjects are broad, and their styles vary from archaic simplicity to clear naturalness, making them important and influential sources for understanding ancient Chinese thought, medicine, and literature.