Fu, the Cauldron, is transformation.
Guanyinzi said: The Tao is at root utter nothingness; one who returns affairs to the Tao attains it in a single breath. Affairs are at root utter being; one who moves affairs by the Tao covers a hundred undertakings. Attaining the Tao in its honored aspect, one can assist the world; attaining the Tao in its solitary aspect, one can establish the self. One who knows that the Tao cannot be confined by time can make one day a hundred years and a hundred years one day. One who knows that the Tao cannot be obstructed by space can make one li a hundred li and a hundred li one li. One who knows that the Tao, having no qi, can move what has qi can summon wind and rain. One who knows that the Tao, having no form, can change what has form can transform birds and beasts. One who attains the clarity of the Tao cannot be weighed down by things; his body is light, and he can ride phoenixes and cranes. One who attains the undivided wholeness of the Tao cannot be drowned by things; his body merges into the dark unknown, and he can make his seat on jiao dragons and whales. Being is nonbeing, and nonbeing is being; one who knows this Tao can control ghosts and spirits. The solid is the empty, and the empty is the solid; one who knows this Tao can enter metal and stone. Above is below, and below is above; one who knows this Tao can attend upon the stars. The ancient is the present, and the present is the ancient; one who knows this Tao can divine by tortoise and yarrow. Others are the self, and the self is others; one who knows this Tao can see into other people's lungs and liver. Things are the self, and the self is things; one who knows this Tao can form the dragon and tiger within the belly. Knowing that images change according to the mind, one who contemplates the mind in this way can form the maiden and the infant. Knowing that qi arises from the mind, one who breathes in spirit in this way can form the furnace and the smelting. Overcoming things by this, one can subdue tigers and leopards; being one with things by this, one can enter water and fire. Only a person who has the Tao can do these things, and he is also able to be able to do them and yet not do them.
He said: Human power can sometimes seize the creative transformations of heaven and earth: raising thunder in winter and making ice in summer, making corpses walk and withered trees bloom, capturing ghosts in beans and catching fish in a cup, making a painted door open and a clay ghost speak. All these are done by pure qi, and so it can transform the myriad things. The ceaseless stirring of our feelings today is also done by qi. As for qi, it gathers and it scatters. That by which I move the qi has never gathered and never scattered. What gathers lives; what scatters dies. That which has never gathered and never scattered has neither life nor death. Guests come and go, but the inn remains as it always was.
He said: Some chant spells, some serve spirits, some write characters in ink, some form hand signs; all these can command spirits, control qi, and transform the myriad things. It is only that insincere people find it hard to trust themselves and easy to trust in things, and so they borrow these means to do it. If one knows that there is only sincerity, then there are things that happen without depending on those means.
He said: In the space of one breath out and one breath in, the sun travels four hundred thousand li; transformation can be called swift indeed. Only the sage neither holds on nor changes.
He said: Qingluanzi lived for a thousand years and was transformed through a thousand years; Taozi held office five times and his mind was transformed five times. The sage treats affairs as guests and leaves things behind—is it that he does not wish to establish anything in the world? Those who have form and number fear that transformation cannot be known.
He said: The myriad things change and shift, now hidden and now manifest in turn, but their qi is only one. Only the sage knows the one and does not transform.
He said: The growing of nails, the lengthening of hair, and the circulation of the nutritive and defensive qi never stop for a moment. The multitude see this only when it is obvious and cannot see it when it is subtle. The worthy see it when it is subtle, yet cannot give themselves over to transformation. The sage gives himself over to transformation, and therefore for him there is no transformation.
He said: In one's room there are constant sights and sounds; then one goes to the gate, to the neighbors, to the village, to the district; then to the outskirts, to the mountains, to the rivers. The sights and sounds differ at each place, likes and dislikes follow them, harmony and contention come after them, and gain and loss result from them. Therefore the sage is cautious in moving and in stopping.
He said: It is like the great sea, which transforms into hundreds of millions of jiao dragons and fish, yet the water is only one. I and things, luxuriant and flourishing, are within the great transformation, yet our nature is only one. One who knows that the nature is one has no others and no self, no death and no life.
He said: It is the principle of the world that right may change into wrong and wrong into right, kindness into enmity and enmity into kindness. Therefore the sage, while dwelling in the constant, is mindful of change.
He said: When young, a person should wear the teachings of his father and elder brothers like ornaments; in his prime, he should take to heart the admonitions of his friends; in old age, he should take warning from the words of the young and strong. Then, though the myriad transformations shift, they cannot trap me.
He said: It is the principle of the world that what is light is easily transformed and what is heavy is hard to transform. Wind and clouds change and vanish in a moment, while the nature of gold and jade does not alter over long ages. A person who is light and bright can transform together with creation without lingering, and there is probably something in him that has never been transformed.
He said: Two children are fond of each other; when they grow up and meet, they do not recognize each other. Two young men are fond of each other; when they grow old and meet, they do not recognize each other. It is like the transformation of sparrows into pigeons and of hawks into doves: there is no past and no present.