Huangdi Yinfu Jing Zhu — Annotated by Shen Yafu, Supervising Secretary
This is a commentary on the Yellow Emperor's Classic of the Hidden Accordance (Huangdi Yinfu Jing), one of the most compressed and famously cryptic scriptures in the Daoist Canon, traditionally credited to the legendary Yellow Emperor but almost certainly written many centuries later. Its commentator, Shen Yafu, held the office of Supervising Secretary and is otherwise little recorded; his commentary dates from no later than the Northern Song dynasty (960–1127), survives in one scroll, and is listed in the bibliographic treatise Tongzhi Yiwenlüe. It is preserved in the Daoist Canon's Cavern of Perfection division, Jade Instructions category, where modern reference catalogues number it DZ 116.
The commentary follows the classic form of Chinese scriptural exegesis: each line of the base scripture is set down first, and Shen Yafu's explanatory prose follows immediately after. A preface precedes the commentary proper and states its governing claim outright — that the Yinfu Jing's celebrated three-part reading, usually taken as cosmology, statecraft, and the art of war, in truth describes three levels of a single practice of inner alchemy: an Immortals' Way of circulating qi to the crown of the head, a middling Method of governing the heart-mind as a sovereign governs a state, and a lesser Art of uniting the body's true water and true fire. What follows is dense, technical, and written for a reader already fluent in the vocabulary of inner cultivation — the trigrams Kan and Li, the elixir field, the primal qi — glossing the scripture's riddling lines with explanation almost as compressed as what it explains.
A note on one word. Shen Yafu organizes his whole commentary around yǎn 演 — "to unfold, to expound, to put into practice" — the verb that titles all three of his chapters: Expounding the Way, Expounding the Law, Expounding the Art. The word carries at once the sense of explaining a text and of carrying out a discipline, and that doubleness is the commentary's argument in miniature: to expound the Yinfu Jing rightly is not to explain it from outside but to perform it as cultivation.
Translated for the Good Works Library directly from the classical Chinese of the Daoist Canon, which is printed in full below the translation. The base scripture this commentary explains, the Yinfu Jing itself, has been translated into English many times since the nineteenth century; Shen Yafu's commentary on it has not. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of Shen Yafu's commentary on the Yinfu Jing.
Translation
Preface
The Hidden Accordance, in its three hundred words, comes down in its purport to a single point — yet most people in the world fail utterly to fathom its mystery and depth. Are not those who explain it merely as cosmology, as military strategy, or as the affairs of men, mistaken?
The Great Mystery says: "Yang advances the Five Blessings, and by their kind they ascend: long life, wealth, health and peace, the love of virtue, a good end to one's span. Yin conceals the Six Extremities, and by their kind they descend: calamity and early death, sickness, distress, poverty, wickedness, weakness." The sages set forth how Heaven is one and Earth is two, and from these the Three are born; the ten thousand things are all endowed with the one qi, and thereby live. And so: one cultivates the heart-mind until it unites with one's nature; cultivates one's nature until it unites with qi; unites qi with the empty and formless; and unites the empty and formless with the one body of the Way.
Only then does one grasp Heaven and walk its Way — observing the celestial images, taking the sages' words as one's model, fathoming the mysterious text of the Three Essentials, refining the true qi of the Five Phases, shaping sun and moon as a potter shapes clay, secretly circulating Kan and Li, discerning the hidden workings of yin and yang's transformation, and penetrating the principle by which Heaven and Earth bring life into being. The Scripture says: "The sun and moon have their numbers; the great and small have their fixed measures. From this the sage's achievement is born; from this the numinous light emerges." Great indeed! To probe its wondrous purport to the depths and fathom its true source completely — attaining this, one gains long life; losing it, one holds life cheap.
From this one can see why the ancient sages and worthies kept secret and preserved the three words Expounding the Way, Expounding the Law, and Expounding the Art: this is the secret of Heaven's hidden workings, not to be leaked lightly. Here I offer a brief annotation, to guide the reader toward its fine subtleties. What matters is directness without ornament, so that its great meaning may be easily grasped.
At the highest level, the divine immortals embrace the One: this is Expounding the Way. Expounding the Way is the gateway of returning the elixir and embracing the One — circulating the qi so that it runs and pays court at the Muddy Pellet (niwan), as though a pellet of qi were turning, rising to pay court to Heaven. When a person's primal qi runs to the head, this is what is meant by the graph dao [道]. The Scripture of the Immortals says: "Live long without growing old; return the essence to replenish the brain." The Jade Instructions of Great Clarity says: "When one reaches the ground of the River Chariot, gold fills my house" — this is what is meant.
At the middle level, enriching the state and giving the people peace: this is Expounding the Law. Expounding the Law means: within, removing the heart's deviant desires; above, paying court to the pure water of Kan — this is what is meant by the graph fa [法]. Here the heart-mind is the sovereign: at ease and untroubled, it attains the One, rectifies its statutes and measures, enriches the state, and gives the people peace. The Jade Instructions of Great Clarity says: "When one reaches the ford of the tawny river and fashions the color white, the true is stored away" — this is what is meant.
At the lowest level, strengthening the army and winning in battle: this is Expounding the Art. Expounding the Art means: wood generates fire; what is hollow at the center of Li is water, what is solid at the center of Kan is fire; and so the work proceeds from the center of the heart, true water and true fire subduing each other in turn — this is what is meant by the graph shu [術]. The Jade Instructions of Great Clarity says: "When one reaches the purple essence elixir, not dying is no longer difficult" — this is what is meant.
The commentary proper follows: the Yellow Emperor's Classic of the Hidden Accordance, annotated by Shen Yafu, Supervising Secretary.
Chapter One: Expounding the Way
Observe the Way of Heaven; grasp Heaven's motion — and all is complete.
The noble man looks up and observes the Way of Heaven, which turns without ceasing. According with its pattern and moving in accord with it, he thereby secures his own inborn nature and allotted life, nourishing and preserving them — and Heaven's reckoning is thus fulfilled.
Heaven has five thieves; whoever perceives them prospers.
"Heaven has five thieves" means the five phases. The sun is fire; fire is born from wood, and wood overcomes earth. The moon is water; water is born from metal, and metal overcomes wood. To perceive how the five phases steal from and give birth to one another is to perceive cold and heat, the turning of the seasons. Hence it is said: "I look up and observe Heaven's theft; when the five phases, moving with or against each other, attain their proper sequence, then Heaven's mandate flourishes and extends" — this is the great root of long life.
The five thieves are in the heart-mind; carried out, they reach to Heaven.
Heaven has its five stars; man has his five viscera, answering to the eyes, ears, nose, tongue, and heart-mind. The heart-mind is chief of the five thieves. Therefore, by observing the five stars — the warp and weft of the ten thousand images — the inner and the outer complete each other, and the Way of Heaven is thereby grasped and carried out.
The universe is in the hand; the ten thousand transformations are born in the body.
The noble man, having understood and penetrated the true source, grasps the likeness that heaven and earth are in his hand and creative transformation is born in his heart-mind. He knows that the ten thousand things are endowed with the one qi, which gives birth to the bodies of the ten thousand things.
Heaven's nature is man's nature. Man's heart-mind is the pivot. To establish the Way of Heaven is to settle man.
"What Heaven mandates is called one's nature" — this is what is meant by "man." Man's heart-mind, subject to the workings of the pivot, fathoms the accomplished work of creative transformation; walking the Way of Heaven, there is then no error and no fault.
When Heaven releases its killing pivot, dragons and snakes rise from the earth.
In the month of triple yang, yin and yang intermingle and reach their peace; water and fire steal from one another — this is Heaven releasing its killing pivot. Thunder and lightning, wind and rain shake and stir; dragons and snakes emerge from their winter sleep; the ten thousand kinds spring into being. In this the full authority of birth and killing is seen.
When man releases his killing pivot, heaven and earth overturn.
In general the human heart-mind should not be stirred to motion; if it moves, good fortune, ill fortune, regret, and shame are all born from it. "Heaven and earth" here does not mean heaven and earth literally overturning. "Heaven" means the sage; "earth" means the way of the minister; "overturning" means the alternation of compliance and rebellion. When the six compliances and six rebellions follow no constant rule, this is called overturning. If the sage does not stir his heart-mind, he accords with the mandate of Heaven; if the small man moves against the pivot, he fails to fulfill Heaven's reckoning.
When Heaven and man release together, the pivot of all transformation is fixed.
The sage unites with the Way of Heaven; its pivot and its balance meet without error or deviation. Thus he fixes the pivot of his own heart-mind, and for this reason holds fast to the One.
Nature has its cleverness and its clumsiness; these can be hidden and stored away.
The clever and the clumsy in human nature are the images of Kan and Li: cleverness is like the hexagram Already Complete, clumsiness like the hexagram Not Yet Complete. Therefore they are hidden and stored in the elixir field. The elixir field is the wellspring of essence and qi.
The deviance of the nine openings lies in the three essentials; through these, motion and stillness are governed.
These are the nine openings of the human body. When the heart-mind is upright, the nine deviances cannot enter. The three essentials are the true number of yang: three times three makes nine; when the yang qi is sufficient, then in motion or in stillness no deviant wickedness can enter.
Fire is born from wood; when calamity breaks out, it must overcome its source. Treachery is born within the state; when it stirs at its season, the state must collapse. To know this and cultivate accordingly — this is called being a sage.
"Fire is born from wood." When the yang qi is at its height, one must guard against contention and guard against desire, and not let treachery and theft arise. The noble man cultivates his person and refines his conduct; only afterward does he govern the state and give the people peace. Such is the sage and the worthy.
Chapter Two: Expounding the Law
Heaven and Earth are the thief of the ten thousand things; the ten thousand things are the thief of man; man is the thief of the ten thousand things. When the three thefts are all complete, the Three Powers are all at peace. Hence it is said: eat at the right season, and the hundred bones are governed; stir at the right pivot, and the ten thousand transformations are at peace.
The Three give birth to the ten thousand things, holding within them the true yang qi. When the one qi is stolen, it receives its return on the seventh day; then the Three Powers attain the One and are complete. Man has already stolen the beginning of the ten thousand things, using it every day without knowing it. The one who knows it gains long life; his bodily frame undergoes no harm; the ten thousand transformations settle of themselves into peace.
Man knows its spirit-power, but does not know that its very absence of spirit-power is what makes it spirit-like.
Man possesses thirty-six thousand points of spirit-light; when desires are many, essence and spirit are worn down and exhausted, and so it is not spirit-like. The Classic of Changes says: "That which yin and yang cannot fathom is called spirit." To embrace the One and preserve the spirit — this is what makes it spirit-like.
The sun and moon have their numbers; the great and small have their fixed measures. From this the sage's achievement is born; from this the numinous light emerges.
The sun is the essence of fire; day and night it travels one degree. The moon is the essence of water; day and night it travels twelve and a half degrees. Therefore the noble man steals the numbers of water and fire; in their motion, great and small, an achievement of surpassing sagehood arises, and spirit-light emerges.
As for the pivot of this theft — none under heaven can see it, none can know it. The noble man, attaining it, makes firm his person; the small man, attaining it, holds his life cheap.
Hence the thief steals Heaven's hidden workings; in the motion of creative transformation, the foolish can neither see it nor know it. The noble man, attaining it, returns to the true; the small man, going against it, loses his life.
Chapter Three: Expounding the Art
The blind excel at hearing; the deaf excel at seeing. Cut off benefit at its single source, and the effort applied is tenfold.
When the blind and the deaf excel at hearing and seeing, it is because they have cut off benefit at its root and source. If a person can concentrate the heart-mind on the One, and the middle way is never abandoned, then a tenfold achievement lies beyond ordinary reach.
Turn back three times by day and by night, and the effort applied is ten-thousandfold.
The noble man concentrates his heart-mind, turning it over by day and by night; in the season of triple yang his practice never lapses, and so his achievement surpasses ordinary effort ten-thousandfold.
The heart-mind is born from things, and dies by things; the pivot lies in the eye.
When the heart-mind is still as ashes and the eye no longer looks outward, thoughts of life and of death are both cut off, and one forgets even the pivot itself.
Heaven shows no kindness, and yet the great kindness is born from it.
Heaven does not speak; the sun and moon are without partiality. If a person can steal and feed upon their essential radiance, he attains the art of not dying — and this boundlessness is precisely the birth of the great kindness.
Sudden thunder, fierce wind — nothing fails to be stirred by them.
When the will is concentrated on the One, sincere and without cleverness, then even amid such violence one remains as if insensible, unmoving.
Utmost joy leaves nature with surplus; utmost stillness brings integrity.
When nature is harmonious, it embraces even the wild and untamed with surplus to spare; when the heart-mind is clear, the ten thousand transformations become level and upright.
Heaven's utmost partiality is used with utmost impartiality.
That Heaven lets down its signs, and that man can steal them and act upon them — this is the utmost partiality. Yet Heaven's creative transformation is without bias and without faction — this is the utmost impartiality.
Mastery of seizing lies in the qi. Life is the root of death; death is the root of life.
Man lives because of qi, and dies because of qi; the ten thousand things are born because of earth, and perish because of earth. If a person can seize and master this, attaining the true, upright qi of heaven and earth, this is the root of long life and not dying. "Seizing" here means both to seize and to let go.
Kindness is born from harm; harm is born from kindness.
That the ten thousand things are born in spring and grow in summer is kindness; that they are cut down in autumn and stored away in winter is harm. That a person is born because of a woman is kindness; that a person dies because of a woman is harm.
The foolish take the patterned principles of heaven and earth for sagehood; I take the patterned principles of season and thing for wisdom.
"Pattern," said of heaven and earth, means the patterns of the heavens and the principles of the earth; said of season and thing, it means Heaven's proper times and Earth's advantages. One who images forth and embodies Heaven's order is a sage; one who accords with the seasons and their changes is wise. The foolish cannot discern Heaven's seasons or human affairs; but one who can unite with the transforming nurture of heaven and earth, and set forth teaching according to the times, is sage and worthy both. The Way is the root of stillness; stillness is the pivot of Heaven. In motion, one observes its changes; in change, one discerns its images. Thus in the motion and stillness of creative transformation, yin and yang push against each other in turn, and thereby unite with Heaven's revolutions, whose numbers cannot go astray. The Great Mystery says: "By night, fathom yin; by day, fathom yang." Then the sage penetrates the mysterious principle, firmly holding his inborn nature and allotted life; his hidden pivot governs nothing by force, and his utmost discourse has no end. As for those who speak of it merely as military strategy and the affairs of men — are they not far from it indeed?
Colophon
This Good Works Translation was prepared for the Commentaries on the Classics shelf of the Good Works Library. The English was translated independently from the classical Chinese text printed below. Shen Yafu's commentary follows the standard lemma-and-gloss format of Chinese scriptural commentary: each line of the base Yinfu Jing scripture is quoted first, then followed immediately by the commentator's explanatory prose. This translation keeps that alternation visible, setting the base scripture's own words in bold before each block of Shen Yafu's commentary, and renders the author's preface — itself an opening argument followed by three short expositions of the terms "Way," "Law," and "Art" — as continuous prose, matching the source.
Before the claim below was written, a genuine translation-status check was performed. The two standard local bibliographies of Daoist texts in Western-language translation — Komjathy's Daoist Texts in Translation and the 2023 Purple Cloud survey of Daoist Texts in Western Languages — were searched by Chinese title, pinyin, and author. Both record numerous translations of the base Yinfu Jing scripture itself (Philastre 1880, Balfour 1881, and others down to modern editions), and Komjathy separately records Thomas Cleary's 1991 translation of a different, much later commentary on the same scripture — the Qing-dynasty Yinfu jing zhu of the Longmen patriarch Liu Yiming (1734–1821). Neither bibliography records any translation of Shen Yafu's Northern Song commentary specifically, nor does either mention Shen Yafu by name. Three further web searches, under the Chinese title, the author's name, and the commentary's Daozang catalogue entry, turned up bibliographic notices of the text — its place in the Canon, its listing in the Tongzhi Yiwenlüe — but no published English translation of it. To our knowledge, this is the first complete published English translation of Shen Yafu's commentary on the Yinfu Jing. We state this as the limit of our search, not as a certainty.
A further note on two points. The base scripture's own central image, inherited whole by Shen Yafu's commentary, is dào 盜 — "thief," "to steal" — the claim that Heaven and Earth steal from the ten thousand things, the ten thousand things steal from man, and man steals from them in turn. This translation keeps the word's plain, almost shocking force as "thief" and "steal" throughout, rather than softening it to something like "draw upon," since the scripture's point is exactly that the cosmos runs on theft, not gift — a claim Shen Yafu's commentary takes entirely for granted. Separately, one character in the commentary to the line "dragons and snakes rise from the earth" is printed in the source as 螯, "pincer" or "to sting," a verb that does not fit dragons and snakes; it is rendered here in the sense of the graphically similar 蟄, "to lie dormant" — "dragons and snakes emerge from their winter sleep" — which is almost certainly the intended sense, though the source character is reproduced as printed in the Chinese text below.
Prepared for the Good Work Library by the Tianmu Anglican Church with AI-assisted translation and editorial work.
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Source Text: 黃帝陰符經註(沈亞夫)
Classical Chinese text of the Zhengtong Daozang, in the Chinese Wikisource transcription. Presented complete for reference, study, and verification alongside the English translation above. 〔 〕 marks the commentary as formatted in the transcription.
黃帝陰符經註(沈亞夫撰)
約出於北宋。《通志‧藝文略》著錄。一卷。
黃帝陰符經註序
夫《陰符》三百言，旨歸一也。 世人多罔測玄奧，談道兵法人事者，非耶。 《太玄》曰：陽推五福以類升。 壽富康寧，好德終命。 陰幽六極以類降。 凶短折疾，憂貧惡弱。 聖人敷演天一地二三生，萬物稟一炁而生，是以修心合性，修性合炁，炁合虛無，虛無合體。然後執天行道，觀象法言，測三要之奧文，煉五行之正炁，陶甄日月，濳運坎離，察陰陽造化之權，通天地發生之理。經曰：日月有數，大小有定，聖功生焉，神明出焉，大哉。深窮妙旨，洞測真源，得之則長生，失之則輕命。有以見演道、演法、演術三字，古聖賢秘而存焉，乃天機密也，不可輕泄。今略註解，用導精微。直貴无文，易明大意。上則神仙抱一演道。夫演道者，還丹抱一之門，運炁走朝泥丸， 如炁丸轉，上朝天也。 人之元炁走於首，為之道字。《仙經》曰：長生不老，還精補腦。《太清玉訣》曰：若到河車地，黃金滿我家是也。中則富國安民演法。夫演法者，中去邪欲之心，上朝淳坎之水，為之法字。是心為帝王，坦然得一，正其法度，富國安民也。《太清玉訣》曰：若到褐河津，造白色，藏真是也。下則強兵戰勝演術。夫演術者，木生火，離中虛是水也，坎中實是火也，是以中心行，真水真火相伏，為之術字也。《太清玉訣》曰：若到紫精丹，不死亦不難是也。
正文
黃帝陰符經註
〔給事中沈亞夫註〕
演道篇第一
觀天之道，執天之行，盡矣。 〔君子仰觀天道，運行不息，合法順動，固其性命乃保毓，天數盡矣。〕天有五賊，見之者昌。 〔天有五賊，五行也。日者，火也。火生於木，木克土。月者，水也。水生於金，金克木。見五行相賊相生，是為寒暑。故曰：予仰視天之盜，五行順逆，得其次序，則天命昌延，乃長生之大本。〕五賊在乎心，施行于天。 〔天有五星，人有五臟，應眼、耳、鼻、舌、心。心者，五賊之首，是以觀於五星，經緯萬象，內外相成，執天之道行矣。〕宇宙在乎手，萬化生乎身。 〔君子曉達真源，譬天地在乎手，造化生乎心，知萬物稟一炁生萬物之身也。〕天性，人也。人心。機也。立天之道，以定人也。 〔天命之謂性，人也。人心機變，測造化之功定，行天道无差失也。〕天發殺機，龍蛇起陸。 〔三陽之月，陰陽交泰，水火相賊，乃天發殺機，有雷霆風雨振動，龍蛇出螯，萬彙發生，見生殺之權，備矣。〕人發殺機，天地反覆。 〔凡人心不可動，動則吉凶悔吝生焉。天地非反覆。天者，聖人也。地者，臣道也。反覆者，順逆也。六順六逆不常則，乃為之反覆。聖人不動心，則順天之命；小人逆行機，則不盡天數矣。〕天人合發，萬變定機。 〔聖人合天道，機衡當无差變，乃定其心機，是故守一。〕性有巧拙，可以伏藏。 〔夫人巧拙之性，坎離之象，巧則既濟，拙則未濟，故伏藏於丹田。丹田者，精炁之元也。〕九竅之邪，在乎三要，可以動靜。 〔人身之九竅也，心正則九邪不能入；三要者，陽之正數也。三三如九，陽炁足則動靜无奸邪可入。〕火生於木，禍發必尅。姦生於國，時動必潰。知之修鍊，謂之聖人。 〔火生於木。陽炁之盛，則戒之在鬬，戒之在慾，勿令奸賊生焉。君子修身鍊行，然後治國安民，聖賢之人也。〕
演法篇第二
天地，萬物之盜；萬物，人之盜；人，萬物之盜。三盜既備，三才既安。故曰：食其時，百骸治。動其機，萬化安。 〔三生萬物，含正陽之炁。一炁盜，受七日來復，乃三才得一而備。人既盜萬物之始，日用而不知，知之者長生，形骸无變，萬化自安也。〕人知其神，不知其不神所以神也。 〔人之有三萬六千神光，故多慾則耗竭精神，故不神也。《易》曰：陰陽不測之為神，抱一存神所以神也。〕日月有數，小大有定。聖功生焉，神明出焉。 〔日則火之精，晝夜行一度；月則水之精，晝夜行一十二度半。是故君子盜水火之數，小大運動，乃有殊聖之功也，神光出焉。〕其盜機也，天下莫能見，莫能知。君子得之固躬，小人得之輕命。 〔故賊盜天機，造化運動，愚者莫能見、莫能知。君子得之歸真，小人逆之亡命。〕
演術篇第三
瞽者善聽，聾者善視。絕利一源，用師十倍； 〔瞽聾善聽視，則絕利根源。人能專一心，而中道不廢，十倍之功不可及也。〕三返晝夜，用師萬倍。 〔君子專心，反覆晝夜，三陽之時，行用不闕，乃過師之功萬倍也。〕心生於物，死於物，機在目。 〔心即灰而目不外視，生死絕念，乃忘其機也。〕天之无恩而大恩生。 〔天之不言，日月无私。人能盜餌精華，得不死之術，恩无極則是大恩生也。〕迅雷烈風，莫不蠢然。 〔專一志而愨乎不技，故蠢然而不動也。〕至樂性餘，至靜則廉。 〔性和則包荒有餘，心清則萬化平廉。〕天之至私，用之至公。 〔天垂象，人能盜而行之，至私也；天之造化，无偏无黨，乃至公也。〕禽之制在炁。生者，死之根；死者，生之根。 〔人因炁而生，因炁而死；萬物因地而生，因地而死。人若能擒制，得天地正炁。乃長生不死之根也。禽者，擒縱也。〕恩生於害，害生於恩。 〔萬物春生夏長，恩也；秋殺冬藏，害也。人因婦人而生，乃恩也；因婦人死，是害也。〕愚人以天地文理聖，我以時物文理哲。 〔天文地理也，天時地利也。象天體制者聖，順時變動者哲。愚者不能察天時人事；若能合天地化育，與時設教，乃聖人賢哲也。 道者靜之本，靜者天之機。動則觀其變，變則察其象。故造化動靜，陰陽相推，是以合天運，數不可差忒。《太玄》曰：夜則測陰，晝則測陽。乃聖人通達玄理，固帶性命，潛機不宰，至論无窮。令談兵法人事者，豈不遠哉？〕
Source Colophon
The Chinese text follows the Chinese Wikisource transcription of the Daoist Canon edition of this text (article 黃帝陰符經註(沈亞夫), revision of 10 October 2017), inspected from a witness copy captured on 8 August 2026. Chinese Wikisource transcriptions are published under CC BY-SA 4.0 and the GFDL; the text itself is ancient and in the public domain. The wiki header and license templates have been removed; the text is otherwise complete and unaltered.
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