BRONZE

Tao is a thing, elusive and evasive.
Evasive and elusive,
Yet there is a Symbol (Hsiang) in it.
Elusive and evasive,
Yet there is a Substance (Wu) in it.



"... Tao produces the Hsiang, and then out of the Hsiang the Wu comes into being. In other words, symbols serve as patterns from which physical objects are evolved. The His Tz'u says:"In the heavens there are the symbols (hsiang) there completed; on the earth there are shapes and features (hsing) there formed. In this way changes and transformations are exhibited." This means that symbols come into existence in precedence of substances."

From James Legge's translation of the I Ching: