EAST 211 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Yellow Emperor, Shangdi, Nondualism
15 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Zhou Dynasty: State Formation and Cosmology
The Problem with Early Zhou Rulership
Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE)
Shang ruler and divination
○
-
Zhou (Chou) Dynasty (1122-256 BCE)
Virtuous Kings Wen and Wu
○
-
Concept of a “Dynasty”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” in the Zhou
Shangdi 上帝 “Lord on High”
-
Huangtian shangdi 皇天上帝 “August Heaven Lord on High”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” = Part ancestor spirit, part impersonal force
-
-
Son of Heaven
Tianzi 天子 “son of heaven”
-
Wang 王“king”
○Connected heaven and Earth
-
Temple of Heaven
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Theory
Heaven gives its mandate to a virtuous person to rule
-
The ruler is responsible to heaven to rule virtuously
-
“Heaven shows its pleasure/displeasure”
○Ex: rainbows or mythical creatures (like unicorns) showed the
virtuousness of the ruler, while earthquakes, famine, disease, etc show
the shortcomings of the ruler
-
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Practice
For the ruler... “Might makes right”1.
For the people...Implicit right of rebellion
○People have the right to rebel based on the idea of the mandate of
heaven
2.
Mandate of Heaven 天命
Moral story of history:
Rise and fall of dynasties
○
First ruler virtuous...last ruler degenerate...
○
•
Macrocosmic-Microcosmic Coordination
Earth = microcosm
-
Heaven = macrocosm
-
Correlative cosmology
○There is a correlation of between the earth (microcosm) and heaven
(macrocosm)
-
Cosmic patterns:
yin/yang
○
five phases
○
Yijing 易經 (Book of Changes)
○
-
Yin-Yang as a Field of Knowledge
Yin-Yang Philosophy
Yin-Yang Philosophy
-Cosmic pattern
○constant movement between the two
○Dualities: shade vs. sunlight, female vs male, etc
○Not substances but the quality of the world
○Originates from the idea of sunlight falling on a mountain valley
Cyclical Change: Things turn into their opposites
○*not fixed opposite
○Compare to moon/solar cycle
-
Non-Duality: Complementary opposites
-
Yin and yang seek balance
-
Yin-Yang and the Lunar Cycle
Cyclical change (Sun and moon)
-
Reversal
-
Yin-Yang and the Solar Cycle
Yin-yang are in different processes of movement --> in the spring, yang is
increasing, in the autumn, yin is increasing
-
Yin-Yang as “proto-science”
Empirical
-
laws based on nature
-
impersonal
-
Test Question
“The Yellow River overflows its banks”
-
Thinking about Yin-Yang Philosophy
Discussion Questions:
Are yin and yang one or two?1.
Do yin/yang offer a positive or negative model for gender relations?2.
How do you understand Yin-Yang?
Is it two separate things or the same thing?
Is it both? --> that’s a paradox
○
Is it neither 1 nor 2?
○
-
Part of the interesting thing about yin-yang is that any of these options are
valid. Can be 1, 2, 1 and 2, or neither.
-
Non-dual relationship:
Beyond words, beyond logic
Will see this in Dao
○
-
Yin-Yang can be talked about logic but doesn't fit into ordinary categories of
thought/logic
-
Relationship between 1 and 2 that can't be described within logic
-
Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Wood
-
Fire
-
Earth
-
Metal
-
Water
-
Forces or phases, not substances
Based on the idea that there are these 5 key elements in nature, but the 5
phases are things that are changing within the cosmos. Basic 5 elements
are associated with a range of processes
○
-
Based on elements of nature
-
Deducted everything should fit into these 5 categories/phases
-
Cyclical change: have 5 elements, but one is changing into the other. Organically
morph into each other
-
Why isn't air on the list?
Chi is air/breath. It is this basic material/spiritual substance of everything
in the universe. Part of this change process
○
Fundamental/basic component that underlies everything and is part of
this change
○
Half material/spiritual substance
○
Idea of cultivating chi in your body through tai chi/meditation, etc
○
-
Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Categorize everything in the cosmos into these 5 groups
-
Seasons:
Idea that Earth could be all seasons together, or they could create new
one.. These didn't please anyone so they just left it
○
-
Gives you a system of ritual knowledge
-
Ruler is in order of coordinating activities of human societies (as son of heaven).
5 phases gives him ideas on how to behave
Spring ritual: what colour should the ruler wear?
Green
§
○
What should he sacrifice in Spring?
Sheep
§
○
-
Each thing is supposed to be connected in the season. Spring is connected to
east, which is connected to sheep, etc
-
Still important for ritual traditional Chinese medicine.
If you have a problem with your lungs, you eat bitter foods
○
5 phases gives correspondence between things that have causal effects
on each other
○
-
Music and causation
How the causality is working here:
How the phases interact with each other
○
Indirect causal pattern called sympathetic resonance based on analogy of
music
○
-
“Sympathetic resonance” (ganying 感應)
Musical analogy
If you tune 2 strings on the instrument to the same tone, when you
pluck one, the other will naturally resonate. No direct contact
between the strings, but the vibration of one makes the other
vibrate
§
Took this for a model on how the 5 phases/yin-yang interact with
each other
§
Not a linear way of thought, but seeing things as a whole
§
Different parts of the cosmos resonate with each other
§
○
Organic model
○
-
Orderly Change
Mutual Production Order
→wood→fire→earth→metal→water→
Earth is a productive space where metal comes from
§
Metal leads to water?
§
Water leads to growing trees
§
○
-
Mutual Conquest Order
→wood→metal→fire→water→earth→
Wod (tree) is conquered by axe
§
Metal is forged by fire
§
Fire is put out by water
§
Earth encompasses water
§
○
-
Both of these orders are based on empirical observation on how different
elements in the world interact with each other
All interact with each other and change in a predictable, repeating pattern
○
-
Order can be applied to many things
Phases
○
Dynasties of rulerships →rise and fall in predictable fashion
Yellow emperor: associated with yellow, earth
§
Each dynasty is associated with element, and colour they associate
with their dynasty
§
5 phases as part of political system and part of natural changes in
politics and evolution
§
○
-
Macro-Micro Coordination in Time
“Monthly Ordinances” (Yueling 月令) in the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記)
Book rites: important book, becomes part of Confucian classics. Describes
rituals
○
Monthly ordinances: tell ruler what he should/shouldn't do to keep his
society in order and keep harmony with the cosmos
○
-
The first month of spring
The animals of this month bear scales on their body. The corresponding sound is jiao,
and the temperation of the pipes corresponds to the tone taicu. Its corresponding
number is eight, the corresponding flavor is sour, the corresponding smell is animal
odour. The kind of religious offering is the house offering, the first sacrificed piece is
the spleen...
...If the king should give orders belonging to summer, wind and rain will come
untimely, the plants will too early be withered, which will give damage to the country.
If he should give orders belonging to autumn, pestilence will befall people, strong
wind and great rain will appear, and the fruits of the field will not be ripe in their time.
If he should give orders belonging to winter, cold water will appear as an enemy, frost
and snow will attack everyone, and the grain will have no ears.
Tells him to make orders/degrees that are part of the natural season in time
-
King will not be in harmony with heavens and will lose mandate if he does not
do this
-
Micro-Macro Coordination in Space and Time
Mingtang 明堂 “The Bright Hall”
-
Cosmological map by which people understood how the cosmos were laid out
China is in the center, surrounded by other regions
○
Leader can do rituals in one convenient location --> moving with the
seasons
○
-
Pattern of the cosmos follows the map we saw of the yellow emperor (central
Chinese state/emperor surrounded by others)
-
Chinese architecturally designed cities/palaces according to this cosmological
map in order to make microcosmic reflections of this greater cosmological
pattern
-
Walled Cities
Recent walled city from 9th/10th century
-
Early Shang/Jao you have walls from red earth, then later stone
-
Military purpose to defend city
-
Administrative purpose: administer population in orderly fashion
-
City Plan of Chang’an (7th-9th c. CE)
Designed city in cosmological grid
-
9 sections like cosmological map
-
Ritaully coordinated
-
Forbidden City (16th-20th c.)
Daoist Temples Today
Yijing 易經 (Book/Classic of Change)
Written early in Jao dynasty
-
divination text
Used in temples today in China to ask questions about something
auspicious/concerning. Do this divination and will it give you some kind of
response
○
-
philosophical text
Key ideas about how cosmo works/functions
○
-
The 8 Trigrams (bagua 八卦) and 64 Hexagrams
Based on patterns of 8
-
Each trigram has 3 lines that are either yin or yang
Broken lines are yin
○
Solid lines are yang
○
Earth: maximum yin
○
Heaven: maximum yang
○
-
All possible combinations = 64 hexagrams
-
Hexagrams correspond with life situation/personal characteristic
-
If you do your divination, you get a hexagram that should inform the way you
act in the world
-
Yijing: Way of consulting cosmic patterns to understand rhythms of the universe
Often you will get someone to interpret these results from you
○
-
The Eight Trigrams (bagua 八卦)
Mapped onto cosmological conceptions of space/time
-
All of these systems are integrated together (yin-yang, trigrams, 5 phases)
Comprehensive system that represents all of the cosmos
○
-
Taiji 太極 (Tai-chi) = “Supreme Polarity”, “Great Ultimate” (non-dual)
Grand unity that is not divided --> primal metaphysical absolute that
cannot be divided/categorized
○
-
Yijing as “cosmic filing system”
Hierarchal system of understanding nature
○
-
Hexagrams are also process of change. When you do the divination, there are
certain signs that the hexagram is changing into another (yin line may be
changing into yang line)
Tells you your present situation is not fixed
○
-
Evaluating Correlative Cosmology
What are some problems with correlative thinking (yin/yang, five phases) as a
system of knowledge?
Some of the connections are unclear - how do we know these things
correspond?
Usually some basis. Spring is associated with green and spring is
associated with sheep
§
○
Not falsifiable/verifiable - how can we prove that some things are yin and
some are yang?
Aren't just one person's idea
§
○
Basic categorization where nothing fits completely into yin or yang
○
Objective
Never really know whether something is yin or yang?
§
○
Assuming correlation and causation are tied together --> this could be
misleading in terms of chronological causality
○
-
How would you compare correlative thinking to science?
Correlative cosmology incorporate random events into a meaningful
system. Scientific thinking relies on the empirical/observable. There is
observation in correlative cosmology but it is less concerned with
concrete facts
○
-
What are some advantages of correlative thinking as a system of knowledge?
Not scientific thinking, but it is a sophisticate view of drawing laws of
nature to make systematic systems of knowledge (academic interest?)
○
Accessible
Not the ijing - but you can go to an interpreter
§
Not like modern scientific knowledge
§
○
Comprehensive and stable body of knowledge (can be satisfying)
Scientific knowledge is always changing
§
○
-
3: Zhou State Formation and Cosmology
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
12:59 AM
Zhou Dynasty: State Formation and Cosmology
The Problem with Early Zhou Rulership
Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE)
Shang ruler and divination
○
-
Zhou (Chou) Dynasty (1122-256 BCE)
Virtuous Kings Wen and Wu
○
-
Concept of a “Dynasty”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” in the Zhou
Shangdi 上帝 “Lord on High”
-
Huangtian shangdi 皇天上帝 “August Heaven Lord on High”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” = Part ancestor spirit, part impersonal force
-
-
Son of Heaven
Tianzi 天子 “son of heaven”
-
Wang 王“king”
○
Connected heaven and Earth
-
Temple of Heaven
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Theory
Heaven gives its mandate to a virtuous person to rule
-
The ruler is responsible to heaven to rule virtuously
-
“Heaven shows its pleasure/displeasure”
○
Ex: rainbows or mythical creatures (like unicorns) showed the
virtuousness of the ruler, while earthquakes, famine, disease, etc show
the shortcomings of the ruler
-
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Practice
For the ruler... “Might makes right”1.
For the people...Implicit right of rebellion
○People have the right to rebel based on the idea of the mandate of
heaven
2.
Mandate of Heaven 天命
Moral story of history:
Rise and fall of dynasties
○
First ruler virtuous...last ruler degenerate...
○
•
Macrocosmic-Microcosmic Coordination
Earth = microcosm
-
Heaven = macrocosm
-
Correlative cosmology
○There is a correlation of between the earth (microcosm) and heaven
(macrocosm)
-
Cosmic patterns:
yin/yang
○
five phases
○
Yijing 易經 (Book of Changes)
○
-
Yin-Yang as a Field of Knowledge
Yin-Yang Philosophy
Yin-Yang Philosophy
-Cosmic pattern
○constant movement between the two
○Dualities: shade vs. sunlight, female vs male, etc
○Not substances but the quality of the world
○Originates from the idea of sunlight falling on a mountain valley
Cyclical Change: Things turn into their opposites
○*not fixed opposite
○Compare to moon/solar cycle
-
Non-Duality: Complementary opposites
-
Yin and yang seek balance
-
Yin-Yang and the Lunar Cycle
Cyclical change (Sun and moon)
-
Reversal
-
Yin-Yang and the Solar Cycle
Yin-yang are in different processes of movement --> in the spring, yang is
increasing, in the autumn, yin is increasing
-
Yin-Yang as “proto-science”
Empirical
-
laws based on nature
-
impersonal
-
Test Question
“The Yellow River overflows its banks”
-
Thinking about Yin-Yang Philosophy
Discussion Questions:
Are yin and yang one or two?1.
Do yin/yang offer a positive or negative model for gender relations?2.
How do you understand Yin-Yang?
Is it two separate things or the same thing?
Is it both? --> that’s a paradox
○
Is it neither 1 nor 2?
○
-
Part of the interesting thing about yin-yang is that any of these options are
valid. Can be 1, 2, 1 and 2, or neither.
-
Non-dual relationship:
Beyond words, beyond logic
Will see this in Dao
○
-
Yin-Yang can be talked about logic but doesn't fit into ordinary categories of
thought/logic
-
Relationship between 1 and 2 that can't be described within logic
-
Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Wood
-
Fire
-
Earth
-
Metal
-
Water
-
Forces or phases, not substances
Based on the idea that there are these 5 key elements in nature, but the 5
phases are things that are changing within the cosmos. Basic 5 elements
are associated with a range of processes
○
-
Based on elements of nature
-
Deducted everything should fit into these 5 categories/phases
-
Cyclical change: have 5 elements, but one is changing into the other. Organically
morph into each other
-
Why isn't air on the list?
Chi is air/breath. It is this basic material/spiritual substance of everything
in the universe. Part of this change process
○
Fundamental/basic component that underlies everything and is part of
this change
○
Half material/spiritual substance
○
Idea of cultivating chi in your body through tai chi/meditation, etc
○
-
Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Categorize everything in the cosmos into these 5 groups
-
Seasons:
Idea that Earth could be all seasons together, or they could create new
one.. These didn't please anyone so they just left it
○
-
Gives you a system of ritual knowledge
-
Ruler is in order of coordinating activities of human societies (as son of heaven).
5 phases gives him ideas on how to behave
Spring ritual: what colour should the ruler wear?
Green
§
○
What should he sacrifice in Spring?
Sheep
§
○
-
Each thing is supposed to be connected in the season. Spring is connected to
east, which is connected to sheep, etc
-
Still important for ritual traditional Chinese medicine.
If you have a problem with your lungs, you eat bitter foods
○
5 phases gives correspondence between things that have causal effects
on each other
○
-
Music and causation
How the causality is working here:
How the phases interact with each other
○
Indirect causal pattern called sympathetic resonance based on analogy of
music
○
-
“Sympathetic resonance” (ganying 感應)
Musical analogy
If you tune 2 strings on the instrument to the same tone, when you
pluck one, the other will naturally resonate. No direct contact
between the strings, but the vibration of one makes the other
vibrate
§
Took this for a model on how the 5 phases/yin-yang interact with
each other
§
Not a linear way of thought, but seeing things as a whole
§
Different parts of the cosmos resonate with each other
§
○
Organic model
○
-
Orderly Change
Mutual Production Order
→wood→fire→earth→metal→water→
Earth is a productive space where metal comes from
§
Metal leads to water?
§
Water leads to growing trees
§
○
-
Mutual Conquest Order
→wood→metal→fire→water→earth→
Wod (tree) is conquered by axe
§
Metal is forged by fire
§
Fire is put out by water
§
Earth encompasses water
§
○
-
Both of these orders are based on empirical observation on how different
elements in the world interact with each other
All interact with each other and change in a predictable, repeating pattern
○
-
Order can be applied to many things
Phases
○
Dynasties of rulerships →rise and fall in predictable fashion
Yellow emperor: associated with yellow, earth
§
Each dynasty is associated with element, and colour they associate
with their dynasty
§
5 phases as part of political system and part of natural changes in
politics and evolution
§
○
-
Macro-Micro Coordination in Time
“Monthly Ordinances” (Yueling 月令) in the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記)
Book rites: important book, becomes part of Confucian classics. Describes
rituals
○
Monthly ordinances: tell ruler what he should/shouldn't do to keep his
society in order and keep harmony with the cosmos
○
-
The first month of spring
The animals of this month bear scales on their body. The corresponding sound is jiao,
and the temperation of the pipes corresponds to the tone taicu. Its corresponding
number is eight, the corresponding flavor is sour, the corresponding smell is animal
odour. The kind of religious offering is the house offering, the first sacrificed piece is
the spleen...
...If the king should give orders belonging to summer, wind and rain will come
untimely, the plants will too early be withered, which will give damage to the country.
If he should give orders belonging to autumn, pestilence will befall people, strong
wind and great rain will appear, and the fruits of the field will not be ripe in their time.
If he should give orders belonging to winter, cold water will appear as an enemy, frost
and snow will attack everyone, and the grain will have no ears.
Tells him to make orders/degrees that are part of the natural season in time
-
King will not be in harmony with heavens and will lose mandate if he does not
do this
-
Micro-Macro Coordination in Space and Time
Mingtang 明堂 “The Bright Hall”
-
Cosmological map by which people understood how the cosmos were laid out
China is in the center, surrounded by other regions
○
Leader can do rituals in one convenient location --> moving with the
seasons
○
-
Pattern of the cosmos follows the map we saw of the yellow emperor (central
Chinese state/emperor surrounded by others)
-
Chinese architecturally designed cities/palaces according to this cosmological
map in order to make microcosmic reflections of this greater cosmological
pattern
-
Walled Cities
Recent walled city from 9th/10th century
-
Early Shang/Jao you have walls from red earth, then later stone
-
Military purpose to defend city
-
Administrative purpose: administer population in orderly fashion
-
City Plan of Chang’an (7th-9th c. CE)
Designed city in cosmological grid
-
9 sections like cosmological map
-
Ritaully coordinated
-
Forbidden City (16th-20th c.)
Daoist Temples Today
Yijing 易經 (Book/Classic of Change)
Written early in Jao dynasty
-
divination text
Used in temples today in China to ask questions about something
auspicious/concerning. Do this divination and will it give you some kind of
response
○
-
philosophical text
Key ideas about how cosmo works/functions
○
-
The 8 Trigrams (bagua 八卦) and 64 Hexagrams
Based on patterns of 8
-
Each trigram has 3 lines that are either yin or yang
Broken lines are yin
○
Solid lines are yang
○
Earth: maximum yin
○
Heaven: maximum yang
○
-
All possible combinations = 64 hexagrams
-
Hexagrams correspond with life situation/personal characteristic
-
If you do your divination, you get a hexagram that should inform the way you
act in the world
-
Yijing: Way of consulting cosmic patterns to understand rhythms of the universe
Often you will get someone to interpret these results from you
○
-
The Eight Trigrams (bagua 八卦)
Mapped onto cosmological conceptions of space/time
-
All of these systems are integrated together (yin-yang, trigrams, 5 phases)
Comprehensive system that represents all of the cosmos
○
-
Taiji 太極 (Tai-chi) = “Supreme Polarity”, “Great Ultimate” (non-dual)
Grand unity that is not divided --> primal metaphysical absolute that
cannot be divided/categorized
○
-
Yijing as “cosmic filing system”
Hierarchal system of understanding nature
○
-
Hexagrams are also process of change. When you do the divination, there are
certain signs that the hexagram is changing into another (yin line may be
changing into yang line)
Tells you your present situation is not fixed
○
-
Evaluating Correlative Cosmology
What are some problems with correlative thinking (yin/yang, five phases) as a
system of knowledge?
Some of the connections are unclear - how do we know these things
correspond?
Usually some basis. Spring is associated with green and spring is
associated with sheep
§
○
Not falsifiable/verifiable - how can we prove that some things are yin and
some are yang?
Aren't just one person's idea
§
○
Basic categorization where nothing fits completely into yin or yang
○
Objective
Never really know whether something is yin or yang?
§
○
Assuming correlation and causation are tied together --> this could be
misleading in terms of chronological causality
○
-
How would you compare correlative thinking to science?
Correlative cosmology incorporate random events into a meaningful
system. Scientific thinking relies on the empirical/observable. There is
observation in correlative cosmology but it is less concerned with
concrete facts
○
-
What are some advantages of correlative thinking as a system of knowledge?
Not scientific thinking, but it is a sophisticate view of drawing laws of
nature to make systematic systems of knowledge (academic interest?)
○
Accessible
Not the ijing - but you can go to an interpreter
§
Not like modern scientific knowledge
§
○
Comprehensive and stable body of knowledge (can be satisfying)
Scientific knowledge is always changing
§
○
-
3: Zhou State Formation and Cosmology
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 12:59 AM
Zhou Dynasty: State Formation and Cosmology
The Problem with Early Zhou Rulership
Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BCE)
Shang ruler and divination
○
-
Zhou (Chou) Dynasty (1122-256 BCE)
Virtuous Kings Wen and Wu
○
-
Concept of a “Dynasty”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” in the Zhou
Shangdi 上帝 “Lord on High”
-
Huangtian shangdi 皇天上帝 “August Heaven Lord on High”
-
Tian 天“Heaven” = Part ancestor spirit, part impersonal force
-
-
Son of Heaven
Tianzi 天子 “son of heaven”
-
Wang 王“king”
○Connected heaven and Earth
-
Temple of Heaven
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Theory
Heaven gives its mandate to a virtuous person to rule
-
The ruler is responsible to heaven to rule virtuously
-
“Heaven shows its pleasure/displeasure”
○Ex: rainbows or mythical creatures (like unicorns) showed the
virtuousness of the ruler, while earthquakes, famine, disease, etc show
the shortcomings of the ruler
-
Mandate of Heaven 天命 In Practice
For the ruler... “Might makes right”
1.
For the people...Implicit right of rebellion
○
People have the right to rebel based on the idea of the mandate of
heaven
2.
Mandate of Heaven 天命
Moral story of history:
Rise and fall of dynasties
○
First ruler virtuous...last ruler degenerate...
○
•
Macrocosmic-Microcosmic Coordination
Earth = microcosm
-
Heaven = macrocosm
-
Correlative cosmology
○
There is a correlation of between the earth (microcosm) and heaven
(macrocosm)
-
Cosmic patterns:
yin/yang
○
five phases
○
Yijing 易經 (Book of Changes)
○
-
Yin-Yang as a Field of Knowledge
Yin-Yang Philosophy
Yin-Yang Philosophy
-Cosmic pattern
○constant movement between the two
○Dualities: shade vs. sunlight, female vs male, etc
○Not substances but the quality of the world
○Originates from the idea of sunlight falling on a mountain valley
Cyclical Change: Things turn into their opposites
○*not fixed opposite
○Compare to moon/solar cycle
-
Non-Duality: Complementary opposites
-
Yin and yang seek balance
-
Yin-Yang and the Lunar Cycle
Cyclical change (Sun and moon)
-
Reversal
-
Yin-Yang and the Solar Cycle
Yin-yang are in different processes of movement --> in the spring, yang is
increasing, in the autumn, yin is increasing
-
Yin-Yang as “proto-science”
Empirical
-
laws based on nature
-
impersonal
-
Test Question
“The Yellow River overflows its banks”
-
Thinking about Yin-Yang Philosophy
Discussion Questions:
Are yin and yang one or two?1.
Do yin/yang offer a positive or negative model for gender relations?2.
How do you understand Yin-Yang?
Is it two separate things or the same thing?
Is it both? --> that’s a paradox
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Is it neither 1 nor 2?
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Part of the interesting thing about yin-yang is that any of these options are
valid. Can be 1, 2, 1 and 2, or neither.
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Non-dual relationship:
Beyond words, beyond logic
Will see this in Dao
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Yin-Yang can be talked about logic but doesn't fit into ordinary categories of
thought/logic
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Relationship between 1 and 2 that can't be described within logic
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Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Wood
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Fire
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Earth
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Metal
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Water
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Forces or phases, not substances
Based on the idea that there are these 5 key elements in nature, but the 5
phases are things that are changing within the cosmos. Basic 5 elements
are associated with a range of processes
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Based on elements of nature
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Deducted everything should fit into these 5 categories/phases
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Cyclical change: have 5 elements, but one is changing into the other. Organically
morph into each other
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Why isn't air on the list?
Chi is air/breath. It is this basic material/spiritual substance of everything
in the universe. Part of this change process
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Fundamental/basic component that underlies everything and is part of
this change
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Half material/spiritual substance
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Idea of cultivating chi in your body through tai chi/meditation, etc
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Five Phases (wuxing 五行)
Categorize everything in the cosmos into these 5 groups
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Seasons:
Idea that Earth could be all seasons together, or they could create new
one.. These didn't please anyone so they just left it
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Gives you a system of ritual knowledge
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Ruler is in order of coordinating activities of human societies (as son of heaven).
5 phases gives him ideas on how to behave
Spring ritual: what colour should the ruler wear?
Green
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What should he sacrifice in Spring?
Sheep
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Each thing is supposed to be connected in the season. Spring is connected to
east, which is connected to sheep, etc
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Still important for ritual traditional Chinese medicine.
If you have a problem with your lungs, you eat bitter foods
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5 phases gives correspondence between things that have causal effects
on each other
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Music and causation
How the causality is working here:
How the phases interact with each other
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Indirect causal pattern called sympathetic resonance based on analogy of
music
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“Sympathetic resonance” (ganying 感應)
Musical analogy
If you tune 2 strings on the instrument to the same tone, when you
pluck one, the other will naturally resonate. No direct contact
between the strings, but the vibration of one makes the other
vibrate
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Took this for a model on how the 5 phases/yin-yang interact with
each other
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Not a linear way of thought, but seeing things as a whole
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Different parts of the cosmos resonate with each other
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Organic model
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Orderly Change
Mutual Production Order
→wood→fire→earth→metal→water→
Earth is a productive space where metal comes from
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Metal leads to water?
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Water leads to growing trees
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Mutual Conquest Order
→wood→metal→fire→water→earth→
Wod (tree) is conquered by axe
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Metal is forged by fire
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Fire is put out by water
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Earth encompasses water
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Both of these orders are based on empirical observation on how different
elements in the world interact with each other
All interact with each other and change in a predictable, repeating pattern
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Order can be applied to many things
Phases
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Dynasties of rulerships →rise and fall in predictable fashion
Yellow emperor: associated with yellow, earth
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Each dynasty is associated with element, and colour they associate
with their dynasty
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5 phases as part of political system and part of natural changes in
politics and evolution
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Macro-Micro Coordination in Time
“Monthly Ordinances” (Yueling 月令) in the Book of Rites (Liji 禮記)
Book rites: important book, becomes part of Confucian classics. Describes
rituals
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Monthly ordinances: tell ruler what he should/shouldn't do to keep his
society in order and keep harmony with the cosmos
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The first month of spring
The animals of this month bear scales on their body. The corresponding sound is jiao,
and the temperation of the pipes corresponds to the tone taicu. Its corresponding
number is eight, the corresponding flavor is sour, the corresponding smell is animal
odour. The kind of religious offering is the house offering, the first sacrificed piece is
the spleen...
...If the king should give orders belonging to summer, wind and rain will come
untimely, the plants will too early be withered, which will give damage to the country.
If he should give orders belonging to autumn, pestilence will befall people, strong
wind and great rain will appear, and the fruits of the field will not be ripe in their time.
If he should give orders belonging to winter, cold water will appear as an enemy, frost
and snow will attack everyone, and the grain will have no ears.
Tells him to make orders/degrees that are part of the natural season in time
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King will not be in harmony with heavens and will lose mandate if he does not
do this
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Micro-Macro Coordination in Space and Time
Mingtang 明堂 “The Bright Hall”
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Cosmological map by which people understood how the cosmos were laid out
China is in the center, surrounded by other regions
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Leader can do rituals in one convenient location --> moving with the
seasons
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Pattern of the cosmos follows the map we saw of the yellow emperor (central
Chinese state/emperor surrounded by others)
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Chinese architecturally designed cities/palaces according to this cosmological
map in order to make microcosmic reflections of this greater cosmological
pattern
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Walled Cities
Recent walled city from 9th/10th century
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Early Shang/Jao you have walls from red earth, then later stone
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Military purpose to defend city
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Administrative purpose: administer population in orderly fashion
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City Plan of Chang’an (7th-9th c. CE)
Designed city in cosmological grid
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9 sections like cosmological map
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Ritaully coordinated
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Forbidden City (16th-20th c.)
Daoist Temples Today
Yijing 易經 (Book/Classic of Change)
Written early in Jao dynasty
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divination text
Used in temples today in China to ask questions about something
auspicious/concerning. Do this divination and will it give you some kind of
response
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philosophical text
Key ideas about how cosmo works/functions
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The 8 Trigrams (bagua 八卦) and 64 Hexagrams
Based on patterns of 8
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Each trigram has 3 lines that are either yin or yang
Broken lines are yin
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Solid lines are yang
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Earth: maximum yin
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Heaven: maximum yang
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All possible combinations = 64 hexagrams
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Hexagrams correspond with life situation/personal characteristic
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If you do your divination, you get a hexagram that should inform the way you
act in the world
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Yijing: Way of consulting cosmic patterns to understand rhythms of the universe
Often you will get someone to interpret these results from you
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The Eight Trigrams (bagua 八卦)
Mapped onto cosmological conceptions of space/time
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All of these systems are integrated together (yin-yang, trigrams, 5 phases)
Comprehensive system that represents all of the cosmos
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Taiji 太極 (Tai-chi) = “Supreme Polarity”, “Great Ultimate” (non-dual)
Grand unity that is not divided --> primal metaphysical absolute that
cannot be divided/categorized
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Yijing as “cosmic filing system”
Hierarchal system of understanding nature
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Hexagrams are also process of change. When you do the divination, there are
certain signs that the hexagram is changing into another (yin line may be
changing into yang line)
Tells you your present situation is not fixed
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Evaluating Correlative Cosmology
What are some problems with correlative thinking (yin/yang, five phases) as a
system of knowledge?
Some of the connections are unclear - how do we know these things
correspond?
Usually some basis. Spring is associated with green and spring is
associated with sheep
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Not falsifiable/verifiable - how can we prove that some things are yin and
some are yang?
Aren't just one person's idea
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Basic categorization where nothing fits completely into yin or yang
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Objective
Never really know whether something is yin or yang?
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Assuming correlation and causation are tied together --> this could be
misleading in terms of chronological causality
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How would you compare correlative thinking to science?
Correlative cosmology incorporate random events into a meaningful
system. Scientific thinking relies on the empirical/observable. There is
observation in correlative cosmology but it is less concerned with
concrete facts
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What are some advantages of correlative thinking as a system of knowledge?
Not scientific thinking, but it is a sophisticate view of drawing laws of
nature to make systematic systems of knowledge (academic interest?)
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Accessible
Not the ijing - but you can go to an interpreter
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Not like modern scientific knowledge
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Comprehensive and stable body of knowledge (can be satisfying)
Scientific knowledge is always changing
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3: Zhou State Formation and Cosmology
Wednesday, January 17, 2018 12:59 AM
Document Summary
Huangtian shangdi august heaven lord on high . Tian heaven = part ancestor spirit, part impersonal force. Heaven gives its mandate to a virtuous person to rule. The ruler is responsible to heaven to rule virtuously. Ex: rainbows or mythical creatures (like unicorns) showed the virtuousness of the ruler, while earthquakes, famine, disease, etc show the shortcomings of the ruler. People have the right to rebel based on the idea of the mandate of heaven. There is a correlation of between the earth (microcosm) and heaven (macrocosm) Dualities: shade vs. sunlight, female vs male, etc. Not substances but the quality of the world. Originates from the idea of sunlight falling on a mountain valley. Yin-yang are in different processes of movement --> in the spring, yang is increasing, in the autumn, yin is increasing. Part of the interesting thing about yin-yang is that any of these options are valid. Can be 1, 2, 1 and 2, or neither.
