Yin Yang Diviner

The difference between "照" and "罩" is only one character, but it's like a river separating them.

On the morning of the fiftieth day, my second grandfather gave me a new lesson in the yard.

Zhenyuan lay on the stone table, mirror-faced. The golden light deep within its membrane was almost invisible in the morning light, but I knew it was awake—the energy it had accumulated last night was still slowly flowing through its bones, like a stream that had just thawed.

I placed my palm on the mirror, with my Laogong acupoint facing the center of the mirror. I felt a faint warmth emanating from the depths of the copper, following the lines of my palm, one beat after another, like another heart beating.

"A cover is to cover it up. A light is to let it show."

Second Grandfather took out the camphor wood box from the house, opened it, and took out the Bagua seal from the seven magical artifacts.

"Today we won't learn how to shield, we'll learn how to illuminate. Zhenyuan has collected forty-nine nights of moonlight, and a layer of the yang membrane has penetrated, allowing us to see some shallow things."

It can't see into the deeper parts yet; it needs more nurturing. But the shallower parts are enough for you to learn.

He placed the Bagua seal on the stone table.

The seal is made of bronze, one inch square, with the knob cast in the shape of a crouching xiezhi—a single-horned, lion-bodied creature with its head raised and mouth slightly open, as if it were roaring.

The seal face is engraved with the Bagua diagram: Qian, Kan, Gen, Zhen, Xun, Li, Kun, and Dui. The eight trigrams form a circle, with the character "敕" (chì) engraved in intaglio at the center.

"The Bagua seal was carved by Master Zhou's father, whom I asked to do. The Zhou family has been making seals for three generations. This seal is made of old bronze, with cinnabar and chicken blood added, and it has been quenched forty-nine times. The character '敕' on the seal surface was drawn by my own hand."

He stroked the single horn of the xiezhi on the seal knob with his thumb. "The xiezhi can distinguish between good and evil, loyalty and treachery. Using it as a seal knob will create an impression that can suppress the evil spirits in people's hearts."

He pushed the Bagua seal in front of me.

"Use it to practice today. Use the Zhenyuan Zhao seal and tell me what you see."

I held Zhenyuan in my left palm, with the mirror facing upwards. With my right hand, I moved the Bagua seal directly above the mirror, suspending it about three inches above the mirror.

Looking out from the ancestral aperture—deep within the yang membrane of Zhenyuan, the golden light that had accumulated for forty-nine nights slowly rose. The golden light spread across the mirror surface, shining through and covering the bottom of the Bagua seal.

The seal face changed in the golden light.

The Bagua diagram is still the same Bagua diagram, and the character "敕" (chì) is still the same character "敕". But there is an extra layer of light around the seal face—not gold, not the red of cinnabar, but a very faint indigo blue, as if it has been washed many times with water.

The indigo blue seeps through the copper of the seal face, in fine, wispy strands, like the crackles on an old porcelain bowl, spreading outwards from the gaps between the strokes of the character "敕".

"Blue," I said. "There's an indigo sheen around the seal."

Second Grandfather nodded. "Keep watching. What else is inside the blue area?"

I stared at that patch of indigo.

Golden light shone upwards from the Zhenyuan Mirror, making the indigo blue appear increasingly clear.

The blue is not uniform—it's darker in some places and lighter in others, with the darker areas clustering into clumps, like ink spreading on rice paper.

I counted them, three clusters.

"Three thick clumps. Their locations are..." I identified the positions on the seal.

"One cluster in the Qian position, one cluster in the Li position, and one cluster in the Zhen position."

Second Grandfather did not speak.

He stuffed tobacco into his pipe, struck a match, lit it, and took a puff.

The smoke dissipated in the morning light, and he looked through it at the Bagua seal, his gaze fixed on the distance.

"The Qian position represents Heaven, the Li position represents Fire, and the Zhen position represents Thunder."

He finally spoke, his voice lower than before.

"This seal has been with me for over twenty years, and I've used it to stamp countless talismans. The blob in the Qian position is from a talisman I used to stamp a calming talisman for someone who had been struck by lightning one year—the lightning had severed that person's celestial soul, and I used this seal to stamp seven talismans to reconnect his celestial soul. The seal was tainted with the evil of the lightning tribulation, so this blob of blue remained in the Qian position."

"That blob left behind was a fire evil spirit. A house in town caught fire, burning down three courtyards, and an elderly person in the house couldn't escape. Afterwards, I went to perform a ritual to help the soul of the deceased pass on, but the old man's spirit was trapped in the ruins by the fire evil spirit and couldn't get out. I used this seal to stamp a talisman to open the way and guide him out. The seal was stained with the fire evil spirit, and this blob left behind after it left behind."

"That cluster at the Zhen position—" He paused, took a drag of his cigarette, "...was there for a year, for my own use."

Smoke rose in front of him, dispersed, and rose again.

"That year in western Hunan, I encountered a mountain demon that had grown powerful. Mountain demons belong to the wood element, but it had swallowed a fragment of wood struck by lightning. Thunder was hidden within the wood, making it extremely ferocious. I used this seal to press on my chest, borrowing the thunder energy from the Zhen position to suppress it, and then sealed it in a pottery jar. The seal absorbed the yang energy from my chest, as well as the thunderous energy from the mountain demon, leaving this blue mark on the Zhen position."

The bamboo leaves rustled in the wind. I looked down at the Bagua seal hanging above the Zhenyuan Mirror.

Three clusters of indigo, representing Qian, Li, and Zhen, floated quietly around the seal face.

One is the malevolent force of heavenly thunder, one is the malevolent force of fire, and one is the malevolent force of mountain demon thunder.

They were stained by this seal and trapped in the bronze, where they have not dissipated for over twenty years.

It's not that the seal can't be dispersed—it's that the seal doesn't want to be dispersed.

It retains a little bit of every evil spirit it has suppressed, accumulating it into its own "record".

The more you accumulate, the heavier the imprint becomes. Not in terms of weight, but in terms of significance.

"This is the 'photograph'." The second grandfather tapped his cigarette ash.

"The mirror is not a mirror of shadows, but a mirror of cause and effect. Every ritual implement bears the marks of what it has experienced."

If you take a picture of it, you'll understand where it came from, what it did, and what it came into contact with.

Once you understand it, you'll know exactly what to do when using it—this seal has withstood a lightning tribulation, so if it encounters another lightning strike, it will know how to deal with it; having been touched by fire, if it encounters another fire, its power will be even more decisive, like snatching chestnuts from the flames.

He removed the Bagua seal from above Zhenyuan and put it back in the box.

"A magical artifact is not an inanimate object. It can remember, learn, and accumulate. The longer you use it, the more it accumulates and the more it knows how to help you."

Once it has accumulated enough power, it won't need your commands anymore—it will make its own judgments and take action on its own. At that point, it will no longer be a magical artifact.

"What is it?"

"They are companions." The second grandfather looked at the seven old items in the box.

"I've used them my whole life, and I've only truly mastered three or five magical artifacts. Each one has accompanied me through the most dangerous roads and protected me from the most malevolent evil spirits."

I'm getting old, and so are they. You'll have to take them and care for them for me from now on.

I looked down at Zhenyuan. The golden light on the mirror had not yet faded, and it shone with a warm, gentle glow.

It reflected the cause and effect of the Bagua seal—three patches of indigo, three past events. And what about itself?

It has been pressed under the Yellow River for eight hundred years, pressing down on an incorruptible ancient Western Xia corpse.

Over the past eight hundred years, how much silt and sand from the Yellow River has it touched, how many underwater sounds has it heard, and how many times has it shielded the thing being suppressed from the moonlight?

Its own "record" has been accumulated over eight hundred years. It is merely a mirror and cannot speak.

But within its bones, every layer of membrane holds a memory. Once I've fully nurtured it and accumulated enough energy to communicate with it, it will tell me, word by word.

"Keep practicing." Second Grandfather took the copper bell out of the box.

"Take a look at each of the old items in this box, one by one. Once you've seen them all, tell me what you see. If you can't describe it, ask me. Keep asking until I can't answer anymore."

He placed the copper bell above Zhenyuan. The bell swayed gently on his fingertips, emitting a very faint and light ringing sound, like someone shaking a small handful of silver coins from a very, very far away place.

"This bell was a gift from a corpse-driving craftsman in western Hunan."