If spring arrives at the end of the fifth nine-day stretch, poor men should not head home.
If spring arrives at the end of the sixth nine-day stretch, food and clothing will be no concern.
If the winter solstice and the Beginning of Spring fell forty-five days apart, bitter cold might hinder the growth of all things; if they fell forty-six days apart, the winds and rains would come in season, bringing great fortune.
This year, the Beginning of Spring fell at the end of the sixth nine-day stretch after the winter solstice. On that day, winter departed and spring arrived, the seasons turned, the old gave way to the new, Unity began anew, and all things were renewed. Xuanming happened to finish refining the Two-Sided Bagua Mirror Dharma Artifact, and his lower dantian finally changed as well: the cocoon of light shattered, revealing the microcosm.
But a whirlwind does not last all morning, nor a downpour all day. Busy refining his artifact then, Xuanming had only so much attention to spare and had left it alone. Only now did he have time to attend to it.
Viewed from above within his lower dantian, the microcosm resembled a halo suspended over the origin sea. It shone alongside the essence flower like the sun and moon sharing the sky, each lending radiance to the other. Viewed on its own, the microcosm formed a supreme polarity diagram: Heaven was Qian and earth was Kun, Heaven was yang and earth was yin, the two poles returning to one.
As his Divine consciousness entered it, a wondrous scene met his eyes:
Heaven stood nine feet high, with sun and moon hanging overhead, black and white coexisting. A dark sun ruled the day, a white moon the night; each embraced the other, attaining mysterious unity