From the age of Fu Xi down to the time of Confucius, the early sages established codes and Confucius the Uncrowned King transmitted them. They followed Dao in their writings and established their teachings in accord with the Divine Reason. They studied the images on the Yellow River Diagram and the Pattern from River Luo and divined with yarrow stalks and tortoise shells; they observed heavenly patterns to probe into the rules of change and examined writings from mortal hands to accomplish transformation. In this way they governed the world, instituted eternal laws, achieved noble deeds, and made their writings shine forth. Thus it is known that Dao perpetuates writing through the sages and the sages manifest Dao through writing. Thus the power of the Dao extends without bound: It can be used daily without being exhausted. In the Book of Changes it is written: "Words are the moving force of all things under Heaven." If words can move the world, it is because they are manifestations of the Dao.

Between Fuxi and Confucius the hoary sage established a rite, the throneless king handed down a doctrine. They and those in between all delved into the heart of the Way and composed, penetrated into the supra-human principle and taught. Deriving signs from the Huanghe and the River Luo, inquiring into the mysteries of the milfoil and the tortoise shell, observing patterns in the skies for extremities and in human activities for fullness of understanding, it was possible for them to manage a state, to perfect the changeless law, to capitalize on a career, to give glamour to meaning and language. Know then that as the Way bestows poetry in all its harmony on us through the sage, so the sage lights up the Way with the help of poetry. It is a course that runs unimpeded, and can be used inexhaustibly. "Language",says the Book of Changes, in connection with the language of the hexagrams, "has in it the power of motivating actions in the world". Language can activate the world when and if it is the harmonious language, the poetry, of the Way.