Substantiating Intent, Modeled on the Flying Serpent: A Reading of the Third of the Seven Techniques in the *Guiguzi*'s 'Original Canon on the Yin Tally'
A line-by-line exegesis of 'Substantiating Intent, Modeled on the Flying Serpent,' the third technique of the Seven Techniques of the Yin Tally in the Original Canon of the *Guiguzi*. Beginning from the definition 'substantiated intent is the deliberation of qi,' it traces the pathology of a hollow intent, the cultivation sequence from calming the five viscera to contemplating the Great Void, the cognitive attainment of 'knowing all under Heaven without leaving one's door,' and clarifies the image of the flying serpent through three pieces of pre-Qin evidence drawn from the *Xunzi*, *Shenzi*, and the *Great Treatise*.
1 The Text
The third piece of the "Seven Techniques of the Yin Tally in the Original Canon," from the Guiguzi:
Substantiating intent is modeled on the flying serpent.
Substantiated intent is the deliberation of qi. The heart-mind should be calm and still, and deliberation should be deep and far-reaching. When the heart-mind is calm and still, the numinous spirit flourishes; when deliberation is deep and far-reaching, stratagems succeed. When the numinous spirit flourishes, the will cannot be thrown into disorder; when stratagems succeed, one's achievements cannot be undermined. When intent and deliberation are settled, the heart-mind is thereupon at ease; when the heart-mind is at ease, one's conduct goes astray in nothing, and the spirit naturally attains its place — and once attained, it condenses.
When cognition and qi are but sojourners, deviant and treacherous influences find purchase and lean upon them; deceitful schemes find their way in and delude them, and one's words no longer proceed from the heart-mind. Therefore trust the technique of the heart-mind, hold fast to the true One without letting it be transformed away, and await the point where another's intent and deliberation intersect — listening for it, watching for it.
Stratagems are the pivot and trigger of survival and ruin. If deliberation fails to converge upon its object, then one's listening will not be discerning; if one fails to catch the moment, one's stratagems will be lost, and then intent has nothing to rely upon — it becomes hollow and without substance. Therefore the deliberation behind any stratagem must be devoted to substantiating intent; and substantiating intent must begin from the technique of the heart-mind.
Seek through non-action: calm and settle the five viscera, harmonize and open the six bowels, let the essence, spirit, hun-soul, and po-soul hold firm without stirring — only then can one look inward and listen in reverse, settle the will, contemplate the Great Void, and await the coming and going of the spirit.
Thereby one may observe the opening of Heaven and Earth, know how the myriad things are formed and transformed, perceive the beginning and end of yin and yang, and trace the governing principles of human affairs. Without leaving one's door, one knows all under Heaven; without peering through the window, one sees the Way of Heaven. One judges without seeing, and arrives without moving — this is called Way-knowing. Through it one penetrates to the numinous spirit, responds in every direction without fixed pattern, and the spirit comes to dwell.
The full text runs to fewer than two hundred and fifty characters, yet it contains a complete, self-closing arc: a pathological diagnosis (a hollow intent lets deviant influences in), a cultivation sequence (settling the viscera and bowels, securing the essence and spirit, looking inward and listening in reverse, contemplating the Great Void), a cognitive attainment (knowing all under Heaven without leaving one's door), and a practical destination (stratagems, listening and watching). What follows unpacks it layer by layer.