Ji Tianku

In the mountains, at midnight, dew fell.

Duan Rong was awakened by the cold dew soaking him. With a thought, the Law of Power circulated around his body, and mist began to swirl about him.

The dampness on his clothes and face dried in an instant. Even the cold dew on the thatch beside where he lay on his side dried away.

Duan Rong then turned over and lay on his back.

Half a bright moon hung high in the night sky.

The night sky was like black velvet, without a single cloud. The cold moonlight spilled freely over the valley, the forest, and the rooftops.

Duan Rong's eyes shifted slightly. Before falling asleep, he had been pondering the profound question of whether the moon moved or did not move.

Now, moonlight flowed like water over his face, like the cold moon whispering softly.

As he looked at the beautiful moon hanging high in the sky, he suddenly recalled the final line of the four verses in the Treatise on the Immovability of Things: "The sun and moon traverse the heavens, yet never complete a circuit."

Did the moon truly move?

If the moon did not move, then how could it rise in the east and set in the west?

If it did move, then had not the bright moon risen into the sky night after night since time immemorial? When had it ever left?

At the start of the month, it was new; on the fifteenth, it was full; at month's end, it was dark. Yet when had it ever changed?

Rivers rush forth, yet do not flow; the sun and moon traverse the heavens, yet never complete a circuit. Because rivers, sun, and moon were all trapped within their own fixed molds, they had in truth never changed.