CHINESE
HISTORY & PHILOSOPHY
I. Introduction
II. Dynasties
Ancient China ( – 221 BC)
--Neolitic Cultures ( - 3000 BC)
--Pre-Historic Cultures (3000 – 2000 BC)
--Xia (2000 – 1500 BC)
--Shang (1500 – 1040 BC)
--Zhou (1040 – 221 BC)
--The “One
Hundred Schools” of Philosophy
Early Imperial (221 BC – 586)
--Qin (221 – 206 BC)
--Han (206 BC – 220)
--Six Dynasties (220 – 586)
Middle Imperial (586 – 1280)
--Sui (586 – 618)
--Tang (618 – 906)
--Five Dynasties/Ten Kingdoms (906 – 960)
--Song (960 – 1280)
Late Imperial (1280 – 1912)
--Yuan (1280 – 1365)
--Ming (1368 – 1644)
--Qing ( 1644 – 1912)
Individuals
in
Individuals
on
Leibniz
and
THE
III. Cosmology
Without reference to Yin Yang
--Nu Wa myth
--Jade Emperor myth
--Daoist texts
--Hun-Tun myth (chaos)
--The Spiritual Sovereign
With reference to Yin Yang
--Pan Gu myth
--Tai Yi myth
--Tai Zhao
--Wu Ji / Tai Ji myth
Terms
--Tai Ji
--Yin Yang
--Tai Ji Du
Symbol (Yin Yang symbol)
Terms for God
--Shang Di
--Tian
--Shen
IV. Philosophy
--Confucianism
--Neo-Confucianism
--Nothingness
--Emptiness
--Buddhism
--Zen
Buddhism
V. Dao
Daoism
--Dao
--Metaphysical
Dao
--Change
--Action
without Action (wei wu wei)
--Spontaneity/Naturalness
(zi ran)
--Harmony
--Reversal
(“Reversal is the movement of Dao”)
--Neo-Taoist
Contributions
Daoist
Influences
--Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
--Qigong
--Jing
Essence
Daoist
writings
--Yi Jing (I Ching, Book of Change)
--Huang Di Nei Jing – The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine
--Lao Zi’s Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching, The way and the Power)
http://www.chinahistoryforum.com/
World
History
http://www.didyouknow.cd/history/year.htm
History of
http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/history/index.htm
History and Maps of
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/index.html
The Art of
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/chinese-dynasty-guide.cfm
Population of
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/ChinaFood/data/pop/pop_21_m.htm
World Population in Selected Years:
http://www.worldhistorysite.com/population.html
http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/cgi-local/DHI/dhi.cgi?id=dv1-48
History and Maps of
http://www.mnsu.edu/emuseum/prehistory/china/index.html
The Art of
http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/chinese-dynasty-guide.cfm
Population of
http://www.iiasa.ac.at/Research/LUC/ChinaFood/data/pop/pop_21_m.htm
MDBG
Chinese-English Dictionary:
http://www.xuezhongwen.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict
Pinyin
Dictionary:
http://zhongwen.com/s/ziyin.htm
Chinese
Character Etymology:
http://www.internationalscientific.org/CharacterASP/
1. Ancient Cultures:
In all cultures, the three poles of Heaven-Earth-Man will naturally
produce an inquiry into the universe, life, and knowledge: Heaven in both the
physical (moon, stars, sun) and spiritual sense; Earth as nature and the
environmental influences; Man as mankind proper: Ones actions, thoughts, and
interactions with life. World views usually develop out of, or in some
combination of science, philosophy and religion in conjunction with the
existing economic and political systems.
Ancient cultures tended to rely more on agriculture and animals. Yet, despite
what advances occurred with metals, tools, or irrigation they realized they
ultimately depended on something out of their control: Nature. This dependence
on the environment invariably lead to a desire to understand the physical
aspect of heaven’s influences and movements for predicting and planning
purposes; Also, this dependency invariably lead to an appeal to the spiritual
aspect of heaven as the controller of nature and benefactor of man. All cultures have a central concern for man;
the differentiating factor tends to be how they define man’s relationship to
society, nature, and heaven.
2. Cosmology:
The origin of much of Chinese philosophy, particularly Daoism and
Buddhism, comes from Hindu thought. In
The spiritual concerns for the Chinese begin and end with man and his
ethics or ‘way’ of living life. This is
his philosophy and religion: to live life in maximum harmony and happiness. Spiritual considerations lead to idealism;
Physical considerations to pragmatism.
--Daoism’s concern is for man’s way to be like nature’s way (ie: to model
one’s life on the effortless way in which the seasons unfold and to understand
the ONENESS it shares with the universe). Since nature conducts itself effortlessly, so
should man. Thus identification with an
impersonal entity (heaven or nature) developed more than the concept of a
personal deity (God). –-----Confucianism’s
concern is with ritual and relationships, this had both personal and political
implications; The proper conduct of people and the government was paramount
towards achieving harmony and happiness. In philosophical-to-practical life
application, heavenly help is ultimately unnecessary, as Confucius said: "to
respect gods and ghosts but hold them in distance."
3. Metaphysic:
The perennial metaphysical question, “Why is there something rather than nothing”,
does not escape the Chinese philosophers.
Their history of thinking is not so void of religious concern for
heaven’s spiritual way as it was full of philosophical concern for man’s physical
way. Yet, spirituality is not lacking in
Chinese philosophy when one views it as less about spirits and more in terms of
“being and non-being”.
--The Daoist Laozi said, “All things in the world come from being, and being comes from
non-being”, yet in other places states that both reside in Dao. Thus, one
should not necessarily think in terms of one [non-being] existing exclusively
[in time] without the other’s potentiality inherent; rather, non-being is more
like undifferentiated being, or how potential and kinetic energy are two forms
of the same energy. For Laozi, and thus
Daoism, non-being is a beginning state; an infinite, boundless, unlimited state
of nothingness. Dao encompasses both the
original state and the generating process for all things. It is not like a spiritual non-being, rather
it is describe as giving rise to a force (Tai Ji) and ultimately to
interactions within the universe (Yin Yang).
--Zen and Buddhism’s
concept of nothingness (and emptiness) is similar in the sense that nothingness
is ‘in-and-of-itself’; it has ‘inherent existence’. Its existence is not defined by any
pre-matter; Non-being requires no cause.
--The
Confucians also appeal to Tai Ji as the generating forces of Yin Yang; For
Confucian’s, the natural state is the Great Ultimate (Tai Ji) which eternally
exists and perpetually regenerates; The infinite and boundless space is called
Wu Ji which is said to give rise to Tai Ji (often, this is depicted as similar
to the big bang theory). Since ‘being’
cannot come from ‘non-being’, the natural state for the Confucian is one of
‘being’.
--Neo-Confucianism
utilitzed principle (li) as a cosmic principle and energy (Qi) as the cosmic
force of Tai Ji, eventually released in Yin Yang. The Neo-Confucians re-evaluation of Tai Ji and
Yin Yang lead to the Tai Ji Du, or as known in the west as the Yin Yang symbol.
4. Disharmony:
What brings about man’s suffering and how to rid oneself of
suffering? In many cultures,
spirit/non-being worship or appeasement resulted. To the Christian, it is from having a bond or
separation with God; Central to this is a morality of sin (dualism of right and
wrong, good and bad). The 20th
century British philosopher Bertrand Russell said he believed unhappiness to be due to one’s
mistaken view of the world and mistaken ethics and habits.
--Confucianism, which more closely resembles an
ethical way (and was viewed by missionaries in the 19th century as
not putting emphasis on the inseparable oneness of man-nature-heaven as does
Buddhism and Daoism) stresses the need for man to find happiness through the
harmony created by his actions, this was both a personal and political
message. This naturally leads to
concepts like principles, morals and duty; to the creation of an ideal man, or
the Confucian ‘man of virtue’ (Jun Zi).
--To the Buddhist, the first principle of life is: “Life is Suffering”.
The problems that man encounters with life are self-imposed by his faulty
mental concept of the ‘self’ and the disparity between what we have and what we
want/desire. Buddhism developed prescribed steps (meditation, right living and
thinking) to help man overcome his suffering and be released from life’s cyclic
[karmic] process; Processes don’t suffer, only a ‘self’ can suffer; and the false
concept of the self as an independent existence is the source of our suffering.
Zen makes a small deviation from the Buddhist strict prescribed path and their
solution puts one foot in the Daoist way; Zen sees the source of man’s troubles
as dividing up life; dividing the ‘undivided reality’; Instead of thinking, analyzing
and following prescribed steps, one should simply and naturally ‘do’ in the
moment (every moment becomes a Zen moment) to bring one back to the harmony and
knowledge of an ‘undivided reality’.
--The Daoist believes that man’s problems are due to his disunity with
the universe; When man ceases to
act/think within the theoretical structure of the universal interactive forces
which bring all things together as ONE (Heaven-Earth-Man), then disharmony
occurs. Chinese traditional medicine, Qi
(Chi), Yin Yang, Feng Shui, and internal martial arts (Gi Gong, Tai Ji) arose
from the Daoist position and contributed a holistic way of looking at life
based upon harmony / disharmony.
5. Philosophy:
The Chinese are said to be famed for their pragmatism: their belief
system is based upon what is happening around them. The three pillars of
Chinese philosophy (Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism) all focus on the person
and life: society, ethics, environment, government issues, etc. These issues reveal their concern with ‘this
life and this world’; one needs to know how best to conduct themself and how to
be achieve harmony and happiness. For
convenience, we can categorize Chinese philosophy into two camps:
--(1) That which concerns the social structures and human affairs faced
on a daily basis; This focus is on man’s efforts and interactions within
society. The philosophy of Confucianism
most closely represents this focus—social humanism and personal pragmatism. The
goal is to improve/perfect ‘humanness’ (ren). The Confucian way is
most concerned with man and society; practical considerations for harmony and
happiness are both a personal and political necessity.
--(2) That which concerns the universal structures and human-nature
affairs occurring on a daily, seasonal, and annual basis. This focus is on man’s identification and part
within the cyclic processes of the universe. Buddhism represents this focus and
developed a detailed metaphysics concerning man and reality. Daoism most closely represents this focus—idealism
and nominalism; Instead of the goal being an increase in the knowledge of man,
the Daoist appeared to espouse a decrease in one’s mind; To simplify and reduce
distinction-based thought. In Zen like
fashion, they spoke of the way of ‘No-thought’ over thought and ‘no-action’
over action, where the negation is on outside influence and impediments to
spontaneity. Famously stated by Laozi as: “wei wu wei” (Action without action);
acting naturally and spontaneously without interference from thought or outside
influences. One does this by following the way of nature; Natural theology and natural
pragmatism.
(Compare Stoicism where singular unity of all matter (against dualism)
exists in a circular [world] process, where virtue is the highest ethic and
self-control over one’s emotions—master your passions—and an indifference to
pleasure and pain produces peace within).
6. Oneness:
In comparing ancient Chinese investigation to the early Greeks, the
former was concerned with the ‘way’ (dao) processes and forces (Tai Ji, Qi) of
nature unfold and affect (Yin Yang) human activity; the latter was concerned
with defining the elemental forces that make up nature (atomism). The Chinese
showed little inclination towards a desire to get to the core determination of
a thing’s makeup. Instead, they tend to
view life holistically and to seek to understand the influence of and
connection to the universe. This
tendency to not subdivide life is clearly seen in their poetry; their
linguistic tendency is to describe in fewer words [thus leaving an impression]
rather than articulate in more distinct words [which leaves a description]. A unified theory of the universe was not
sought as much as it was simply embraced.
(Compare the Greeks who developed various discrete mathematical and
astronomical concepts where subdivision is important; or Babylon who stands
in-between, despite their astronomical observations they lacked the geometric
view of the Greeks or the precise collection and interpretative results of
nature’s way on man, such as the Chinese classic, Yi Jing/I Ching Book of
Change, represents.)
7. Society of Man:
In social and economic ways of thinking,
A maritime country which is merchant based will travel and meet more
varied people; industrialization is a more natural outcome. Early
(Compare the philosophy, science, and evolution of thought that
transpired due to the Greeks contact with
NEOLITIC
CULTURES:
According to Chinese tradition, the cradle of Chinese civilization is the
Huang He valley (Yellow River—silt and mud produce a yellowish color); about
10,000 BC an agrarian culture developed comparable to the Nile Valley and oral
[myth] traditions were most likely being passed down; millet was grown as early
as 5500 BC; Around 5000 BC village settlements existed. Pottery had been used since 16,000 BC (see: http://arheologija.ff.uni-lj.si/documenta/pdf29/29chi.pdf
). The earliest form of writing on tortoise shells (though debated if it is a
writing system) dates to 6500 BC (Jiahu script) and 5000 BC (Banpo script). Due
to the similarities to Shang Dynasty characters, it is believed this could put
Chinese writing as the earliest form of writing, 2000 years before Cuneiform. See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/2956925.stm
.
World
Events:
--Between 6000-5000 BC, world population is estimated at 5 million
--villages, settlements and farming appear in such places as
--4241 BC is earliest date mentioned by Egyptians; Around
3150,
--3760 BC is first year (literal creation) of
the Jewish calendar;
--In 3500 BC, a phonetic and number system is developed
by Sumerians; Cuneiform script is considered the oldest writing system and adopted
by many others. Since the early writings
were on clay, even if enemy forces burnt a city, it effectively baked the clay,
preserving the tablets. A Cuneiform example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/91/Sumerian_26th_c_Adab.jpg/180px-Sumerian_26th_c_Adab.jpg
PRE-HISTORIC
CULTURES: 3000 – 2000 BC
A form of Chinese writing by 2500 BC includes
pictograms and then ideograms. The
“Classic of History” (书经, Shu1 Jing1) written in 6th
century BC (one of five classics, a sixth was thought burnt) presents some narrative
and prose on ancient
--The
first of the Sovereigns is said to be Fu Xi, who is credited with inventing writing, fishing and
hunting, as well as the string instrument guqin. He is said to be the originator of “The Book
of Change” (易经, Yi4 Jing1), oldest
of the five classics, which is the source and basis for the Chinese explanation
of how the universe unfolds and influences all life. This ultimately impacts cosmology, Yin Yang,
Traditional Chinese Medicine theory, Feng Shui, etc. In cosmology, Fu Xi is said to be the first
husband, marrying his sister
--Shen Nong (The Divine Farmer) is considered the father of agriculture and
medicine, to be the source of Chinese herbal medicine, having [taste] tested hundreds
of herbs, and having introduced the techniques of acupuncture.
--The fabled first ‘emperor’ (prior to the idea of emperors) was the
“Yellow Emperor” (黄帝, Huang2 Di4 - not to be
confused with the First Emperor of the Qin Dynasty) who lived roughly from
2700-2600 BC. He is said to be the
ancestor of all Han Chinese and one of the founders of religious Taoism, and on
whom is bestowed so much mythology and inventions that separating fact from
fiction is near impossible. The “yellow”
was ascribed for his contributions to agriculture and thus this became the
imperial color. His social feats are
said to cover writing, money and state-government organization, the start of a
patriarchal system, great accomplishments in weapons and war, unifying tribes, creation
of a calendar, developing a compass, eating utensils, founder of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM) with his writing “The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine” (which describes
Yin Yang theory of health, general care methods including acupuncture, and even
describes such diseases as malaria),
discovering tea (first reached Europe in 1610), surnames as originating from
his 25 sons, the raising of silkworms and the start of weaving (his wife is
credited with the these last two). It is
said a yellow dragon came down from heaven and returned with him.
World
Events:
--By 3000 BC, the world population was estimated about 14 million.
--2637 BC is first year of the Chinese
calendar;
--In 2340 BC, the Akkadian Empire was founded by
their conquest of Sumeria, creating the largest empire to date;
--In
--In
--In
--The
Hindu’s possessed the most advanced mathematics of the ancient civilizations
mainly due to their exclusive advancement of zero; As well, they asserted an
understanding of motion, gravity as holding the universe together and revolving
around the sun, and algebra, trigonometry, and calculus centuries prior to
Galileo,
Xia
Dynasty: 2000 – 1500 BC
Traditionally, Yu the Great (大禹, Da4 Yu3) is the founder of
this dynasty and legend ascribes him as author of the mythological geography
book called “The Book of Mountains and Seas” (山海经, Shan1 Hai3 Jing1 - a semi
encyclopedia of China), from which a flood story appears and where Nu Wa
is shown as being a snake with a human head (see the cosmology write-up on
comparisons to the elements in the western bible’s cosmology): This book contained a picture depicting Nu Wa,
again with a snake lower half: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5b/Nvwa.jpg/180px-Nvwa.jpg
This dynasty, long thought a myth, has very little recorded history and only
a few archeological finds. Discoveries
since 2000 have uncovered ruins in
World
Events:
--By 2000 BC, the world population was about 30 million.
--In 1860 BC, Stonehedge is erected.
--In 1730 BC the Babylonian Empire was formed
by the conquests of the Sumerians and Akkadians. The first king of the
Babylonian Empire would become known for “The Code of Hammurabi”, 282 laws and
punishments. (Images of Hammurabi can be found in the US Capital and Supreme
Court buildings).
--By 1600 BC,
--In this period was penned the book of Job and the Rig-Veda, the Hindu
classic and oldest known religious writing.
Shang
Dynasty: 1500-1040 BC
Avoiding the mistakes of the previous ruler, the Shang tribe leader
treated the people well and the economy progressed. During the period the Shang capital was at
Yin and archeological discoveries uncover an active society. The dynasty’s eventual fall would trace to
their continued use of slaves.
The Shang dynasty, often considered the first dynasty, included thirty
kings and seven capitals. This period is recorded as based on agriculture and while
they ate various meats (pig to dog) they disliked dairy. They
are credited with: the first time period to record their history (as found on
Tortoise shells and Oracle bones), iron casting, bronze metallurgy and art,
astronomical discovery of Mars, and use of chopsticks. The family system was based on oldest brother
to youngest brother or nephew. Human
sacrifice and ancestry worship existed.
Their principle gods were for the sky, river, rain, earth; the god over
all was “Shang4 Di4” (上帝 – see cosmology write-up). References to warlike tribes in the north are
thought to include the latter known Huns.
In the end, a despotic ruler was
dethroned by the leader of the Zhou state, where a strong slavery system
existed; generally a farming tribe with slave-soldiers used to protect western
Shang, these slave-soldiers would stage the final revolt.
World
Events:
--By 1500, world population is about 37 million.
--Early in this period, the Phoenicians develop an alphabet.
--Around 1235 BC Athens is founded; 1225 BC marks the birth of “Helen of
Troy” (she’s really of Sparta); 1200 BC was the time of the Trojan War written
in the Iliad by Homer (fall of Troy to the Greeks in 1184 BC).
--Around 1250 BC, Moses unites the Hebrews and they soon occupy
Zhou
Dynasty: 1040-221 BC
The semi-nomadic Zhou tribe conquered the Shang and built their capital
in Xian. The Shang had weakened due to
wars and Zhou strengthened by alliances.
The Zhou (later called Western
Zhou) credited their success to their own instituted concept of the “Mandate of
Heaven”. They banned human sacrifice but
replaced the Shang god (Shang Di) with an impersonal power, Tian, and worship
of stars. Although they conquered hugh portions of
World
Events:
--By 1000 BC, the world population was about 50 million.
--Early in this
period, King Saul is succeeded by
David; David succeed by his son Solomon; After the death of Solomon, the
two Kingdoms of Judah (southern kingdom with it’s capital in
--
--An Etruscan civilization is evidenced (allies
of the Carthaginians), which includes part of later
--
Spring and Autumn Period:Occurred from about 770-476 B.C.
begins what is called the Eastern Zhou.
World Events:
--By 500 BC, world population
was about 100 million.
--In 753 BC,
--In
--The
--In
--Aesop’s fables were written.
Warring States Period: About 475 - 221 B.C., is so named because of the power
struggle between the seventeen or so states of
In the early stages, the state of
Qin was not considered a strong threat, rather semi-barbaric and containing
Tibetans and Turks. Yet their martial
spirit and trade/commerce seeking manner attracted many people and built up
their army. Through expansionism and
alliances, the states has reduced to around seven; Qin moved west in conquests,
founding
World Events:
--By 250
BC, world population is 125 million (
--Through most of this period,
--The Peloponnesian War lasted 30
years (431-404 BC) with the Spartans victorious over the Athenians. This was
followed by the Macedonian invasion of
--The Hellenistic period had begun
in
THE “ONE
HUNDRED SCHOOLS” IN EARLY
Although there was the “One hundred schools” in early
1) Daoist (Dao De) school (Lao Zi and Zhuang Zi) concerned itself
with bringing Heaven-Earth-Man into unity/harmony through the agency of Dao
(called the ‘way’, a process considered more like a force or agency) and the
transmission of De (power,virtue); It was influenced by Hinduism, the religion
of India, and eventually influenced Buddhism (which originated in India).
2) The
3) Confucian (Ju-scholar) School concerned itself with ethics and
principles; ways to live in harmony with people and society.
4) Mohist School (Mo Zi and later Menicus) concerned itself with
promoting general welfare and removing evil through the belief in spirits who
can reward those who practice all-embracing love, or punish those who don’t;
pragmatic dogma; Criticized the Confucian focus on the self as leading to
struggle instead of cooperation and harmony.
5)
6)
All the
schools had well developed political philosophies which sought to expound a way
for man to restore meaning in life and for the government to best rule. Confucianism’s political ethics can be best
seen in this statement, made in light of the previous periods: "If right principles prevailed through
the empire, there would be no need for me to change its state"—Confucius.
Qin (221 - 206 BC)
Of the main
three political philosophies (Confucianism, Daoism, Legalism), legalism was
implemented by the Qin: Qin Shi Huang Di was the first [self-named] emperor of
Qin: the feudal system ended, land was divided into 36 districts with a governor,
the great wall construction began (to keep out the northern warlike tribes), a
canal was built from Chang Jiang (Yangzi) to present day Guangzhou, money was
standardized, the country was unified, and last but not least, all philosophy
books were ordered to be burned (influence of legalist school). The emperor spent lavish amounts of money to
build his Imperial tomb; the famous
location of the 6,000 life like terra cotta soldiers and horses at Xian. The emperor died in 210 BC and a power
struggle ensued for control of
World
Events:
--By 200 BC, world population is about 150 million.
--The second
Punic War is known for the Carthaginian Hannibal’s crossing of the
--Archimedes
develops proofs for a circle’s area and buoyancy.
Han: (Western Han, 206 BC – 9 AD; Xin,
9 – 23; Eastern Han, 23 - 220)
The short
lived Qin was replaced by the Han dynasty who opposed the Qin policies. The
founder of the dynasty was the first commoner to rule china. He made an alliance with the northern warlike
tribes to prevent their attacks, although he died in 195 BC. Power passed between a few emperors: Empress
Lu was the fist woman ruler in
The emperor
wanted to secure trade routes west, yet remove the ties with the northern
tribes who were likely to renew attacks.
He was successful in pushing the northern tribes into retreat and occupying
the new land. Thus, envoys and caravans went west establishing the ‘Silk Routes’
which went about 7000 miles east-west from the Mediterranean Sea to the Yellow
Sea; A king’s messenger, after 13 years of absence from being sent to western Asia
to try and establish peace with the northern tribes, returned with stories of
the land and credited with the recipe for making grape wine; Eventually more
conveys would lead to establishing an east-west relationship); The first Chinese
dictionary (shou wen) of 10,000 words was written; central rule was relaxed and
some land privatized; Military expansion pushed into Vietnam and Korea and
millions were transplanted for colonization.
The Records of the Historian (Shi Ji) became the model for subsequent
history books. The first biography of Laozi appears around 100 BC. This [Han] ethnic
group established itself as the ‘Chinese people’ and the language became known
as ‘Han Yu’.
Buddhism
was first introduced from
The Yellow Turban Rebellion:
The
turning point and weakening of the Han dynasty usually traces to the “Yellow
Turban Rebellion”, a secret Taiping Taoist society (Tai Ping Dao, The way of
Supreme Peace) whose rebellion is the opening event in the classic novel
“Romance of the Three kingdoms”, written during the Mongol ruled Yuan dynasty.
The Yellow
Turban’s spread their message as:
苍天已死， (The
blue sky has perished—Han dynasty)
黄天当立， (The
yellow sky will soon rise—rebels)
岁在甲子， (In this year)
天下大吉 (Everything under heaven shall proper)
Although
the rebellion was defeated, the inevitable power struggle and fight for control
of the south (south of the Yangzi) lead to the battle at Jiang Ling (a
strategic hold) and the “Battle of Red Cliffs” (also in the aforementioned
novel), dividing the powers up. The eventual
fall of the Han dynasty into three kingdoms had started and would result in a
long period of independent state rule.
World
Events:
--In year 0, the world population was about 170 million (
--A Greek
version of the Hebrew bible was written.
--Christianity
is founded.
--The
Coliseum and Parthenon were built by the Romans.
--In 79,
Mount Vesuvius erupts and buries
--In 67
--In 64 was the great fire in
--In 58, Julius Caesar started The Gallic Wars and his
death in 44 spurred the
--By 200
AD, Germanic people were attacking
Six Dynasties: (220 – 586)
Three
competing powers lead to the
The Jin’s
nine successive emperors were eventually defeated by attempting to fight on two
fronts, leaving them too weak in the north against Mongol tribes (Huns, claiming
lineage via the intermarriage to Han princesses). Their inability to unite the country split
into two (North-five states and South-four states) and expansions on the great
wall occurred. The naturalist poet Tao
Qian lived during the Jin Dynasty; His famous Peach Blossom would be imitated
by many poets.
The
capital moved from
WORLD EVENTS:
--From
200-500 AD, world population is thought to be unchanged.
--In 500,
Democracy is established in
--In 476,
the Western Roman Empire comes to an end and
--In 440,
Dec. 25 becomes the accepted celebration of Jesus’ birth.
--By 400,
--In 380,
Christianity is the official religion of
--The
famed Christian, “The Doctor”,
--Jerome
wrote the Latin version of the bible.
Sui: (586 – 618)
Like the
short lived Qin dynasty, the Sui (the founder was of mixed blood and the
capital was setup in Xian) which reunited the country using the popularity of Buddhism
and Taoism as a uniting tool, would precede a great and prosperous dynasty. They
reinstituted Han government policies (positions by merit), abolished noble
class privileges, and reformed many laws.
This dynasty brought the preceding split and rivalry to an end and
started the forces that would be realized fully in the Tang dynasty; The growth
of Buddhism made
The
downfall of this dynasty seems to have been put in motion by the death of the
emperor in 604, whose son abused his power. In 610, the bubonic plague arrives
by boat from
World
Event:
--By 600 AD, world population is about 200 million (
--In 570, Mohammad was born; Islam will soon expand.
Tang:
(618 – 906)
The founder of this dynasty was a former general who took control of the
Sui capital (present day Xian). A well
organized government and codified laws (the Tang Code) coincides with one of
the most well known and prosperous periods in Chinese history; The Elizabethan
Age of
Religious tolerance was at a high (many foreign religions came into
China); Buddhism reached it’s peak (temples were built), emperors adopting it
as a religion, and it spread to Korea and Japan (as well, monks from Japan came
to study Buddhism); The fourth, fifth, and sixth Patriarchs of Zen lived during
this period and split into two branches.
Taoism was not commonly adopted, the emperors’ embraced it (causing it’s
spread mostly through the upper class but soon was used in the civil service
examinations); The emperor built a temple at the birthplace of Laozi. Later in the period, Buddhism was opposed by
the emperors and Taoism further embraced; Confucianism had a revival late in
this period. A landmark visit by a
companion to the prophet Muhammad in 650 is considered the birth of Islam in
The 755 An Lushan Rebellion was the Tang turning point. Power struggles lead to the first successful
peasant rebellion; The emperor ordered arms to the rest of the country but the
newly armed peasants sided with the rebels.
TANG: it’s name survives in the phrase ‘chinatown’: Tang Ren Jie.
WORLD
EVENTS:
--By 800 AD, world population is about 220 million.
--In 635, the first Christian missionaries arrive from Asia Minor and
--In 760, the Muslims invaded
--In 800, the
Five
Dynasties (North) and Ten Kingdoms (South): (907 – 960)
The great Tang Empire fragmented under war and corruption; Buddhism was
persecuted, temples were secularized, and followers reduced. Taoism as a religion remained popular in the
court and with the wealthy. The north faced frequent attacks (Turks) and the
south lived in relative peace (leaders in the south were mostly the Tang
governors). In the south, trade
invigorated the economy and printing promoted education while in the north
paper money was introduced. The painful
practice was foot binding was first begun (finally outlawed in 1911 but
existing much later). This chaotic
period ended when an army soldier awoke to find himself covered in a yellow
rope (the imperial color) and urged by his fellow soldiers to attack the
Emperor…
WORLD
EVENTS:
--The world’s population was estimated at 250 million people.
--Islam spreads in
Song: (Northern,
960 – 1127; Southern, 1127– 1279)
Instead of continuing to fight neighbors in the north, the emperor turned
to taking control of the south where economic progress had naturally made them
militarily weak. In order to maintain
peace with the Turks, payments were more effective than building up and
maintaining an army. This period was a
Chinese renaissance with economic, artistic, and intellectual achievements. (The
western renaissance would occur 400 years later, corresponding to the Ming
dynasty.). Paper money was printed in
colors to deter counterfeiting. The
first map is printed. Population grew by
a factor of four to five. Muslims helped
in important positions in the import/export industries. The most famous Song poet was Su Tung Po;
others include Mei Yaochen and Ouyang Xiu.
Notable inventions were printing with moveable type, magnetic compass,
and the abacus. Notable changes in society were: A political reform of equality
that led to the acquisition of private wealth; Printing was output in excess of
all previous dynasties combined. A
Taoist canon was edited and Taoist architecture becomes popular. The Southern
School of Zen Buddhism continued to flourish and Zen goes to
This dynasty was divided by an invasion of the capital city in 1127, by
the Jin Dynasty, causing the royal family to flee to southern china, setting up
it’s capital in present day, Hangzhou, estimated population of 2.5 million and
20% urban living in the country (in this period, the largest cities in Western
Europe—Italy—have an estimated population of 90,000; France and England did not
sustain similar urban levels for another 500 years). The Southern Song’s preference as a merchant
port, for less government and more education would be a lasting legacy. Inoculations for certain diseases occurred as
early as 1000; In 1200 the population
was around 120 million; Over the next 200 years the plague would hit china in
successive waves. (
World
Events:
--By 1000, The world population is about 300 million (
--Shogun and Samurai emerge as a ruling class in
--The “Dark Ages” come to an end and in 1100 the first of many crusades
occurs.
--The Inquisition begins.
--Marco Polo leaves for
--The Mafia begins operations in
--St. Thomas Aquinas, scholasticism, and Dante are born.
Yuan:
(1280 – 1365) Mongol ruled
The nomadic tribes of Central Asia, under the leadership of Genghis Khan
sought to extend their empire by annexing
The Mongols history of contact with western Asian and Europe brought
about cultural exchange, including showing the west the inventions of the east
(printing) and showing the east tools and instruments of the west. Marco Polo traveled
to the “great Khan capital” (
Ultimately, the ethnic rule failed to get the support of the people and
‘ethic’ division resulted; Mongol, Semu, Han,
WORLD
EVENTS:
--By 1280 AD, world population was about 360 million (
--The plague struck the Chinese
-- The Hundred Years War between
--This period includes Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch, fathers of the
Italian renaissance.
Spread of the Black Death:
Ming:
(1368-1644), Han ruled
This [last ethnic led] dynasty had it’s capital first in
The emperor’s distrust in Confucianism pushed it out the government
doors. Currency devaluations surfaced
due to too much paper money in circulation and coins came back into use; in
turn, counterfeiting of coins devalued currency again. A strong army and navy (ships could carry
500) was formed and many expeditions occurred [the recent controversial ‘1421
discovery of
World
Events:
--By 1500, the world population is 425 million (
--In 1380, Wycliffe writes the first English New Testament (In 1522,
Martin Luther writes a version in German; An English version of the New testament
is printed in 1525; 1535 was the first English printing of entire bible; 1611
brought the King James version).
--In 1431, Joan of Arc burns at the stake.
--In 1445, Gutenberg invented the printing press (
--In 1453,
--In 1492,
--In 1517, Martin Luther published his protest of church practices and
thus was born the Protestant Reformation and the [soon] close of the Middle
Ages.
--The Renaissance flourishes in
--In 1618, the Thirty Years War commenced.
--From the diseases and infections visiting Europe,
--In 1462, Ivan the Great was the first Czar of Russia; In 1547,
--In 1534 the Society of Jesus was founded; In 1581, the Jesuit Ricci
opened the door to
“There is in China in certain regards an
admirable public morality conjoined to a philosophical doctrine, or rather a
doctrine of natural theology, venerable by its antiquity, established and
authorized for about 3,000 years, long before the philosophy of the Greeks.”
"The
commonest opinion held here among those who consider themselves the most wise,
is to say that all three sects come together as one, and that you can hold them
all at once.” (The
three sects: Confucianism, Buddhism and Daoism)
With the western discovery of china’s culture and the opening of
east-west relations revealing an ancient civilization having progressed thus
far without any oversight of a religious body, war- and disease-torn
The Englishman Francis Bacon, a leading proponent for the scientific
revolution stated that three inventions marked the beginning of the modern world: gunpowder,
the magnetic compass, and paper and printing.
All three came from
Qing:
(1644 – 1912), Manchu ruled
A Ming military general allowed the Manchu’s to enter china through the
gates of the great wall at
The history of Chinese and Manchu conflict usually shows dramatic drops
in population; Particularly the Ming-Qing transition and the Taiping Rebellion. The Mongols were known to slaughter at will
and the Chinese to defend to their own death.
The census counts show 1620 with 52 million, 1651 with 11 million; Yet 1741
had 142 million and 1800 had 400 million (urbanization dropped to 7%). Intermarriage with Han was forbidden and
other separatist efforts were in effect (to keep the minority groups apart;
anti-Muslim sentiment existed). An
attempt to forbid foot binding was unsuccessful. Classic works were compiled bringing about a
revival of Confucianism; Neo-Confucianism’s emphasize on subject-ruler
relationships became a state creed. The
Mongols preference for Tibetan Buddhism was their mode of worship.
The novel A Dream of Red Mansions (Hong2 Lou2 Meng4), the Peach Blossom
Fan (Tao2 Hua1 Shan1), and the Strange Tales of Liaozhai were written during
this period. Imperial
The autocratic rule failed to (or was unwilling to) embrace the types of
change going on in developing worlds.
This period included the Opium Wars, Taiping Rebellion, Anglo-French
Invasion, Sino-Japanese War, the Boxer Rebellion, and eventually the Hundred
Day Reform which futility sought to save a sinking ship. Power struggles for reform caused an
inevitable revolution. The full sign of weakness was evident with a two year
old was sitting on the throne. The Xinhai
revolution of 1911 ended imperialism and feudalism and the Republic of China
emerged (1911-1949); The country was proclaimed as belonging equally to the
Han, Muslim, Manchu, Mongol, and Tibetan…
World
Events:
--By 1800 AD, the world population is almost 1 billion (35%); By 1900,
1.6 billion (
--Sir Isaac Newton (english) was a central figure in the Scientific
Revolution as was Leibniz (german) and Voltaire (french) to the Age of
Enlightenment.
--Conflicts would include the American (1775) and French (1789)
Revolutions, the Napoleonic Wars (1805), the 1812 War, the American Civil War
(1861), Franco-Prussian War (1871), and the Russian Revolution (1905).
--The Revolutionary movement in
--In 1721, the Russian Empire, under Peter the Great, was the largest
landmass in the world; Lenin was born in 1870; Tolstoy, who died in 1910, said,
“were I young, I would go to
--
--In 1776, Adam Smith wrote The Wealth of Nations; there was already
strong support for free trade in
--In 1818, Karl Marx is born; In 1844, Nietzsche; In 1889,
Adolf Hitler.
--By 1830, the Industrial Revolution was in full swing.
--In 1833,
--In 1869, Ghandi is born in
--In the 1880s, the first automobile is built.
-- In 1884, a boy of five with a disproportionately large head and who
barely spoke looked into a compass and realized something was affecting the
needle; At 16 years old, staring in a mirror, he wondered what his image would look
like at the speed of sound; The boy was Albert Einstein.
--Zen reached American shores in 1905.
The main source of information about
Throughout the 19th century, the enigma of
INDIVIDUALS
IN
--In 1839, the Scottish Sinologist, James Legge, first entered
--The famous missionary Hudson Taylor arrived in
--In 1872, Bertrand Russell was born and would spend a year later in life
lecturing on philosophy in
--In 1885, Ezra Pound was born and would later write his inspirational
and controversial
--In 1892, Pearl Buck entered china just three months old, learning
english as a second language; She would become a prolific writer and activist.
--In 1903, Watchman Nee was born and would become world renowned for his
Christian writing.
--In 1910, Robert Wood Clack entered
--Some of the Jesuit’s work in china was corresponded back to Leibniz,
leading to period published works (News from
INDIVIDUALS
ON
--Leibniz: "I almost think it
necessary that Chinese missionaries should be sent to us to teach the aims and
practice of natural theology, as we send missionaries to them to instruct them
in revealed religion." -- Novissima Sinia (1697), News
from
--Christian Wolff:
(1679-1754), a disciple of Leibniz, suffered persecution because of his
admiration for
--Voltaire, in 1764: "One need not be obsessed with the merits of
the Chinese to recognize that their empire is in truth the best that the world
has ever seen."
--
--
---Bertrand
Russell in 1921: Asserted that the Chinese were more “laughter-loving
than any other race,” not self-assertive either nationally or individually,
avaricious for money for enjoyment rather than power, and socialist and
scientific rather than capitalistic and mechanistic in temperament. -- Atlantic
Monthly
LEIBNIZ
AND
Leibniz’s scientific fame includes an independent discovery of calculus
(to
“they despise everything which creates or nourishes ferocity in men, and
almost in emulation of the higher teachings of Christ (and not, as some wrongly
suggest, because of anxiety), they are averse to war.
But who would have believed that there
is on earth a people who, though we are in our view so very advanced in every
branch of behavior, still surpass us in comprehending the precepts of civil
life? Yet now we find this to be so among the Chinese, as we learn to know them
better. And so if we are their equals in the industrial arts, and ahead of them
in contemplative sciences, certainly they surpass us (though it is almost
shameful to confess this) in practical philosophy, that is, in the precepts of
ethics and politics adapted to the present life and use of mortals. Indeed, it
is difficult to describe how beautifully all the laws of the Chinese, in
contrast to those of other peoples, are directed to the achievement of public
tranquility and the establishment
of social order, so that men shall be disrupted in their relations as little as
possible.
What harm, then, if some nation has
found a remedy [for these evils]? Certainly the Chinese above all others have
attained a higher standard. In a vast multitude of men they have accomplished
more than the founders of religious orders among us have achieved within their
own ranks. So great is obedience toward superiors and reverence toward elders,
so religious, almost, is the relation of children toward parents, that for
children to contrive anything violent against their parents, even by word, is
almost unheard of, and the perpetrator seems to atone for his actions even as
we make a parricide pay for his deed. Moreover, there is among equals, or those
having little obligation to one another, a marvelous respect, and an
established order of duties. To us, not
enough accustomed to act by reason and rule, these smack of servitude; yet
among them, where these duties are made natural by use, they are observed
gladly. As our people have noticed in amazement, the Chinese peasants and
servants, when they bid farewell to friends, or when they first enjoy the sight
of each other after a long separation, behave to each other so lovingly and
respectfully that they challenge all the politeness of European magnates. What
then would you expect from the mandarins, or from Colai? Thus it happens that
scarcely anyone offends another by the smallest word in common conversation.
And they rarely show evidences of hatred, wrath, or excitement. With us respect
and careful conversation last for hardly more than the first days of a new
acquaintance--scarcely even that. Soon familiarity moves in and circumspection
is gladly put away for a sort of freedom which is quickly followed by contempt,
backbiting, anger, and afterwards enmity. It is just the contrary with the
Chinese. Neighbors and even members of a family are so held back by a hedge of
custom that they are able to maintain a kind of perpetual courtesy. “
THE
"The most perfect society is that whose purpose is the universal and
supreme happiness." – Leibniz, 1690
When Leibniz wrote his “Discourse on the Natural Theology of the Chinese”,
he had argued the ‘natural religion’ the Chinese by. Leibniz’s kinship to
Confucianism was due to his own views on moral philosophy as based upon reason
(not theology); that some laws (Natural Laws) are fundamental to human nature. Central to his Natural Law theories are ethics
and a virtue of good deeds, which produces pleasure; happiness as a process not
a state. For Leibniz, who was unable to
find justification for his ideas in western society, he found in
His fight against the prevailing philosophy of John Locke and his desire
to impact the colonies in
The phrase, ‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of property’, was coined by
Adam Smith, and represented a feudal and oligarchic system supported by John
Locke. Leibniz followed Plato that man’s
happiness cannot be tied to property.
For Leibniz doing good produced happiness, thus one should pursue things
which bring happiness. Leibniz wrote a dismantling
critique of Locke’s work which would finally get published after his death, in
1765. A year later, Ben Franklin would
meet the editor of the newly printed work and discuss the Leibniz concepts on
‘life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’.
The actual expression “pursuit of happiness” was coined by Samuel
Johnson in a novel where it’s clear that happiness is unattainable (or rather
any effect wears off), and it is the pursuit of happiness which brings
happiness.
It should be noted that Thomas Jefferson, the drafter of the Declaration
of Independence was a strong Lockean, in support of the ideas of ‘life,
liberty, and the pursuit of property’ as evidenced in congressional debates of
1774. On the other hand, Franklin was considered a protégé of Cotton Mather,
whose influential, “Essays to do Good” (1710-1860 printings), was an organizing
manual for the American Revolution; On the original cover is displayed a banner
of Plato and Leibniz. Ben Franklin was
the leader of a committee of five to draft the Declaration of Independence and one
cannot help but wonder how influential he might have been towards guiding a
departure from the Lockean emphasis on property (‘life, liberty, and the
pursuit of property’) for the Leibnizan conception of happiness (‘life,
liberty, and the pursuit of happiness’).
COSMOLOGY
WITHOUT REFERENCE TO YIN YANG:
- Name
close to Noah
- existed
before the earth
- chaos
element
- demon’s
fought (breaking the pillars of heaven)
- creator
of all things, giving man and woman procreative powers
- flood
element (after the four poles of heaven broke; survival of two after flood)
- Adam-Eve
element (she was first woman, married her brother)
- Body
covering element; fan as a covering
- Rainbow
element (five-seven colored stone used to mend the sky after the flood)
- 7 days
of creation element
Nü wa
existed in the beginning of the world. She felt lonely as there were no animals
so she began the creation of animals and humans. On the first day she created
chickens. On the second day she created dogs. On the third day she created
sheep. On the fourth day she created pigs. On the fifth day she created cows.
On the sixth day she created horses. On the seventh day she began creating men
from yellow clay, sculpting each one individually, yet after she had created
hundreds of figures in this way she still had more to make but had grown tired
of the laborious process. So instead of hand crafting each figure, she dipped a
rope in clay and flicked it so blobs of clay landed everywhere; each of these
blobs became a person. In this way, the story relates, were nobles and
commoners created from the hand crafted figures and the blobs respectively.
Another variation on this story relates that some of the figures melted in the
rain as Nüwa was waiting for them to dry and in this way sickness and physical
abnormalities came into existence.
Due to the
floods, Nuwa rose to heaven (as a half man) and stopped the floods. The sacrifice of the body is the origin of
the water splashing celebration as practiced by majority groups in
Jade Emperor:
(Yu Huang
-玉皇 ; Yu Di -玉帝 , Tian Gong - 天公 – heavenly grandfather; Yu
Huang Shangdi玉皇上帝or Yu Huang Dadi- 玉皇大帝)
- The
ruler of heaven and earth and patron deity of the imperial court.
- Daoist
story relates he took almost 10,000,000,000 years to cultivate Dao and was able
to fight off the demons who attacked heaven.
He was then anointed Supreme Sovereign of all.
- Created
man from clay (similar to Nu wa story)
- In one
version of The Princess and the Cowherd, the weaver girl is the daughter of the
Jade Emperor. This story is the basis of Chinese Valentine’s day.
- His
birthday is celebrated in Taoist Temples and at New Years some will burn
incense to him.
Jade
Emperor on Hell Bank Note:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/7/76/Hellgreenback.jpg/265px-Hellgreenback.jpg
The Laozi (Dao De
Ching/Tao Te Ching/The Way and it’s Power)
(600 BC ?)
道生一
一生二
二生三
三生萬物
The
Dao begets the One
The One begets the Two
The Two begets the Three
The Three begets the myriad things.
There is no
mention of Yin Yang, although later interpretations see it in either the Two
(Yin, Yang) or sometimes put in the Three (Yin, Yang, Qi, others have Man,
Earth, Heaven). Laozi only mentions Yin
Yang once in this book; He did not even want to give Dao a name, except that he
felt compelled to use a word: “I do not know its name, but if forced to, I'll
call it DAO; if forced to, I'll name it "Great". .
This can be understood as follows:
The Dao (nothingness,
yet inclusive of being and non-being) gives birth to a beginning (of
space-time).
Space-time
gives rise to two separate movements, described as Yin Yang.
The movements
of Yin Yang gives rise to an energy force, Qi [the three are interdependent, as
a twosome they are Yin-Qi and Yang-Qi]. These three forces transform movement
into Heaven, Earth, and Man;
These
three give birth to the ten thousand things.
Zhuangzi
relates the story of the death of
chaos as the beginning of the world: (320 BC ?)
The
emperor god of the
Ming
dynasty story:, The Spiritual Sovereign (1500 AD ?)
In the
beginning there was confusion and chaos. The five elements had not yet began to
transform, nor did the sun and the moon began to shine. In the midst of this
there existed neither forms nor sound. Then the Spiritual Sovereign came forth,
and began to separate the purer from the grosser parts. He created the heavens, He created earth, He
created man. All things with reproductive powers received their being. The
beginning of all things was the result of His Kind Act. All things received His
Great Love. All of the myriad things are found lacking compared with His Great
Virtue.
COSMOLOGY WITH REFERENCE TO YIN YANG:
What
should be seen is that originally, Yin Yang were not considered a dichotomy or
a duality; there is no pure Yin nor Yang since neither can exist without the
other (denoted in the popular Tai Ji symbol by the dots).
In the
beginning there was nothing in the universe except a formless chaos. However
this chaos began to coalesce into a cosmic egg for eighteen thousand years.
Within it, the perfectly opposed principles of yin and yang became balanced and
Pangu emerged (or woke up) from the egg. (Pangu is usually depicted as a
primitive, hairy giant with horns on his head (like the Greek Pan) and clad in
furs). Pangu set about the task of creating the world: he separated Yin from
Yang with a swing of his giant axe, creating the Earth (murky Yin) and
the Sky (clear Yang). To keep them separated, Pangu stood between them
and pushed up the Sky. This task took eighteen thousand years, with each day
the sky grew ten feet higher, the Earth ten feet wider, and Pangu ten feet
taller. In some versions of the story, Pangu is aided in this task by the four
most prominent beasts, namely the Turtle, the Qilin the
After the
eighteen thousand years had elapsed, Pangu was laid to rest. His breath became
the wind; his voice the thunder; left eye the sun and right eye the moon; his
body became the mountains and extremes of the world; his blood formed rivers;
his muscles the fertile lands; his facial hair the stars and milky way; his fur
the bushes and forests; his bones the valuable minerals; his bone marrows
sacred diamonds; his sweat fell as rain; and the little creatures on his body carried
by the wind became human beings all over the world.
Pangu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pangu
TAI YI:
Discovered in 1993 in
太一生水，
水反輔太一，是以成天。
天反輔太一，是以成地。
天地也，是以成神明。
神明復相輔也，是以成陰陽
陰陽復相輔也，是以成四時。
Tai
Yi begets Water.
Water
returns to assist Tai Yi, forming heaven.
Heaven
returns to assist Tai Yi, forming earth.
Heaven
and earth as well, forming divinities.
Divinities
assist one another, forming Yin Yang.
Yin
Yang assist one another, forming four seasons.
Huainanzi (130 BC) , Tai Zhao
天墜未形，
馮馮翼翼，
洞洞灟灟，
故曰太昭。
道始于虛霩，
虛霩生宇宙，
宇宙生氣
氣有涯垠.
清陽者薄靡而為天，
重濁者凝滯而為地。
清妙之合專易，
重濁之凝竭難，
故天先成而地後定。
天地之襲精為陰陽，
陰陽之專精為四時，
四時之散精為萬物。
Heaven
and Earth yet unformed,
All things are in motion (ascending, descending)
This
is called Tai Zhao
Dao began in Void.
Void produced Space [time];
Space [time] produced Qi.
Qi has a boundary [of space].
That
which was pure and bright is Heaven;
The heavy and impure is Earth.
It is easy for that which is pure and subtle to converge,
But difficult for the heavy and dirty to congeal.
Therefore Heaven was completed first, and Earth afterwards.
The combined essences of Heaven and Earth produced Yin Yang.
The concentrated essences of Yin Yang caused the four seasons.
The scattered essences of the four seasons created all things.
WU JI /
TAI JI:
From the
appendix of the Yi Jing, I Ching (Book of Change); this version justifies the
book’s message, that changes brought about by the interactive forces of Yin
Yang are the origin of all the possible changes that can affect the
universe. These changes are the basis
of Yi Jing’s formulation of trigrams into hexagrams. Although the source for the concepts as
found in the Yi Jing are considered to come from Daoism, the appendix was
edited by Confucians.
The Limitless
(Wu Ji) produces the delimited, and this is the Absolute (Tai Ji).
Ta Ji produces two forms: Yin Yang.
Yin Yang produce four phenomena: lesser yang (Shao Yang), great yang (Tai
Yang=Sun), lesser yin (Shao Yin), great yin (Tai Yin=Moon).
The four phenomena act on the eight trigrams (ba gua), eight eights are
sixty-four hexagrams.
Neo Confucianism:
'From Wu Ji comes Tai Ji.
When Tai Ji moves it
creates Yang.
When movement reaches
its extreme, stillness emerges.
In stillness Yin is
born. Thus movement and stillness follow each other...'
Cosmological Chart: Neo Confucian
explanation for Yi Jing Appendix Version:
http://qi-journal.com/PhilosophyArticles/Photos/WuJiDiagram.gif
TERMS:
Dao, Wu
Ji, Tai Yi, Chaos, and Tai Ji are not easily resolved based on any one account.
Dao: Dao is the way of and the sum total of the processes of
the movements and changes affecting the universe. Dao is the overall process; The source of all
things; the way.
Tai Yi: Singularity; containing all
things. Was worshiped as a personified
diety. Part of the three ONES (San Yi). Some
will consider this the same as Dao.
Wu Ji: is like empty space itself, going
infinitely in all directions. It can
hold everything within, yet is emptiness itself. An
empty state of Dao with all the potential energy to effect movement; An empty
chaos; Primeval state of the universe.
Wu Ji -无极 (traditional: 無極) , without extremes/poles, the unlimited, limitlessness
Chaos: a form of potential emptiness, it
contains the original energy; a pre-heaven Qi.
Chaos is the ‘way’ of Wu Ji.
Hun
Dun - 浑沌 (traditional: 渾沌) - Chaos
Tai Ji: The energy stored in Chaos is
released in Tai Ji. Tai Ji is the
movement of Chaos.
Tai Ji - 太极 (traditional: 太極) ,
extremes/poles, the Great Ultimate. Tai
Chi in the west.
At rest, it reunites; in movement it divides. It is like the essence of Dao: Wu Ji’s energy
put to use, manifesting itself in Yin Yang.
Yin Yang: Tai Ji begets Yin Yang: The energy from Tai Ji is divided between Yin
Yang so as to make them interdependent.
Yin - 阴 – (traditional: 陰）- Shady
side of wall, hill, mountain; North side
of the mountain. Symbolically the moon
(月 – yue).
Yin represents: moon, female, cold, darkness, earth, etc
Yang - 阳 –
(traditional: 陽) – Sunny side of wall, hill,
mountain; South side of the mountain.
Symbolically the sun (日 – ri).
Yang represents: sun, male, heat, light, heaven, etc
The Dao De
Jing (The Way and it’s Power) says, "all life embodies yin and embraces
yang."
The first
written usage as found on oracle bones shows sunlight=yang or lack of
sunlight=yin. An early dictionary shows
the Yin and Yang characters depicted as the same hill at one time shaded and at
another time lighted; so not always polar opposites or dualistic as some explain,
but fundamentally one and the same item having undergone a ‘change’ in relation
to the environment (a hill, just at different times of a day).
Yin
Yang represents a state of harmony based on balance; disharmony based on
imbalance. The interaction between the
two interdependent forces generates the changes in the universe. The two are said to proceed from the Supreme Ultimate, Tai
Ji.
Tai Ji Du
(Yin Yang Symbol as a graphical interpretation)
That
darkness (Yin) and lightness (Yang) comes and goes with the rise and fall of
the sun, it was natural that Yin Yang would be graphically represented, as a
plot of lightness and darkness, waxing and waning. By using a 8 foot pole to observe the sun’s
shadow in combination with the position of the Dipper at night, seasonal
changes were recorded and the length of the year was determined to be 365.25
days. Sun Post:
http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CLC/Images/SunPost.jpg
To chart
the changes, six concentric circles marked with an annual cycle divided into 24
segments (about every 15 days) represent the length of the Sun’s shadow
(shortest in summer solstice, most sunshine; longest in winter solstice, least
sunshine). The 24 shadow lines are
moved into a chart to produce the original likeness of the Tai Ji Du
Symbol. These 24 solar segments would
also become the solar basis of the Chinese lunar calendar (the segments
eventually named according to ancient farmer’s use); The lunar basis is the new
moon day is the first day of a lunar month and the length of the lunar month
would be the time between the two moon days.
The
resulting combination of Yin Yang is graphically shown as the Yin Yang Symbol;
In the east as Tai Ji Du. The small
dots in each one [of the other] is to reflect that neither Yin nor Yang are
pure; each depends on the other.
Sun Shadow
Charted to create Tai Ji Du (see write-up on classic texts)
http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/Images/YYLines.gif
Typical Tai Ji Du / Yin Yang Symbol
http://re3.mm-a2.yimg.com/image/2394811012v
TERMS
FOR GOD:
Shangdi, (上帝), God, has it’s earliest reference
in Oracle Bones but within literature it is first found in all of the “five
classics”; The Classic of history.
Although this is the most common term used in classical times, the
references in literature diminishes over time, which may be an indication of
the diminishing deity-centric belief (see Shang-Zhou dynasty transition). No creation narrative exists in early
writings but it might be inferred.
Tian, (天) was later used synonymously with Shangdi (probably
due to the Shang-Zhou dynasty transition of worship), and sometimes in
combination ; it can also mean heaven, sky, nature or some combination.
In the
Shen, (神), Confucius also used this term which can translate to
spirits or god. Also used in protestant
Chinese bibles.
Phrases:
真主, Zhen Zhu , “True Lord”, used by the first missionaries
天父, Tian Fu, “Heavenly Father”
天主 ,
Tian Zhu, “Lord of Heaven”, used by Chinese Catholics
玄天上帝; Yuan Tian
Shang Di, “Heavenly Emperor”. A
上帝太一神, Shang Di Tai Yi Shen, is sometimes
the personification of "the
Supreme Ultimate"
凡人皆天之子, Fan Ren Jie Tian Zhi Zi, "Everyone is a child of Heaven"
Buddhism
– seeing rightly (One with Universal Mind)
Zen
– non-seeing is seeing; seeing is non-seeing (Undivided Reality)
Taoism
– seeing it, yet not naming it (action [that is] non-action; doing [as]
non-doing)
Neo-Taoism
– seeing it, naming it (a nod to Confucianism)
Confucianism
– naming it properly (principles and ethics)
Neo-Confucianism
– thus named, it is seen, thus seen, it is nothing (a nod to Taoism and
Budhism)
CONFUCIANISM:
Confucianism is an ethical/moral system (founded by Confucius, 孔子，Kong Zi)
by which man seeks harmony within society.
This harmony is achieved by adopting a proper ‘way’ of conducting and
governing the state and the self; thus it is both a political and humanistic
philosophy. He emphasized education,
proper definitions (particularly relationships), and ethics/morals (virtue and
principles) in order to develop human-heartedness; to develop a ‘man of virtue’.
Due to the preceding centuries of war and unrest, he was at times blunt
towards the government, giving them a politically pragmatic [golden] rule: “Your
job is govern, not to kill”. Thus, Confucius’s
desire (or ‘way’) for the government was to govern in ethical actions, as an
example to the people. Although
Confucius thought that laws and punishment helped to keep people in line, he
emphasized a government by example: Political virtue and principle should
naturally lead to governing less as best.
The story of the weeping woman underscores the situation that existed in
his time: Upon seeing a woman deeply weeping,
he inquired as to the problem. She related that her husband, father-in-law, and
son had all died from a tiger. When
Confucius recommended that she leave this area she replied that there is no government
oppression in her area. Then Confucius
utter one of his famous political assertions: “A harsh and oppressive
government is more ferocious and fearsome than even a tiger”.
Confucians followed what was referred to as a ‘way [dao] of human concern’
which carried the idea of social and mutual concern that fosters good relations:
He sought to improve ‘humanness’, ( 仁 , Ren,
note the character pictures two people.), According to Confucius, the ‘man of
virtue’ (君子—Jun Zi) is one where neither riches nor honor
corrupts and poverty does not sway his moral values. Confucians sought to cultivate virtue in order
to most effectively change (and restore harmony to) man and society. For the Confucian, “Loving people and treasuring things” was paramount.
That the statement is not to be understood in a materialistic sense (as envy
or desire to accumulate goods) can be seen in the following statement from his
Analects:
“With
coarse rice to eat, with only water to drink, and with my elbow as my pillow, I
find delight in all. Wealth and honor attained through immoral means have as
much to do with me as passing clouds”.
Daoism can in part be seen as a counter-balance to Confucianism: The mental
focus, the effort required and the constant attention and attempts to regulate
emotions or desires seemed artificial to the Daoist. For the early Daoist, a similar statement is
made, but an opposite reflection occurs.
For the Daoist: “despising things
and valuing life” was paramount.
And a Daoist parallel statement about the virtuous man goes:
“The
ideal man would not even remove a hair from his body in exchange for profit”.
Whereas Confucians wanted an active role in society, to control it, to
guide it, and plan it’s changes, the Daoist considered such ideas an exercise
in futility and as creating a wider gap between people and the
environment/nature/universe, which they believed was the source of health and
happiness. Confucius saw the growing gap as between relationships and he wanted
to bridge those; whether within the family or government to people.
Whereas Confucians would achieve their ends by ethics, education, virtue,
and aesthetics, the Daoists found man-mind distinctions, labels and morality a
form of disease; Such ‘ways’ are not the
ways of nature but are forced and unnatural human endeavors to wrestle control
of society and nature. The Daoist did not argue against the
regulation of morality, but the ability for this to achieve maximum
satisfaction of the human. Any imbalance between man and the universe would
potentially affect one’s emotion, health, and longevity. Thus, Confucians primary concern is with man
and his social organizations and responsibilities and the Daoist’s primary
concern is with man and his proper view of universal organizations and interdependencies.
The saying, “Chinese are Confucian by day and Daoist by night”, reflects
the social concerns one has during the day and the more metaphysical reflections
when at rest.
Neo-Confucianism:
The numerous contributions and developments of the Neo-Confucianism include
cosmological, metaphysical, moral, and political issues.
Neo-Confucianism combines Taoist and Buddhist ideas with existing
Confucian ones. Due to the rising
interest of Taoism and Buddhism, particularly how they meet the spiritual and
metaphysical interests, the Confucians saw a need to develop a more thorough
metaphysical system, which eventually ran as follows: They way of heaven (tian
dao) is expressed in principles (li), covered by energy or matter (qi). While
they felt that man was born good, he needed to fully develop this goodness; to
purify “li”.
Neo-Confucianism had the slogan, “The three
teachings are one.” There is
the story of the Chinese Buddhist who was said to wear a Confucian hat, a
Buddhist rope and Taoist shoes, and who taught emptiness/non-attachment,
morality and the love of all beings.
In the late sixteenth century, the Jesuit Ricci reported : "The commonest opinion held here among
those who consider themselves the most wise, is to say that all three sects
come together as one, and that you can hold them all at once.” (The three sects: Confucianism,
Buddhism and Daoism). “The Vinegar Tasters” is a
picture of the three sects standing around a vat of vinegar.
To see a YouTube video of ‘the three vinegar tasters’, scroll to the
bottom:
http://www.edepot.com/taoism_3-vinegar-tasters.html
Before
looking at Buddhism and Zen Buddhism, two important concepts which developed
out of Buddhism were Nothingness and Emptiness:
NOTHINGNESS
1) Western view, Religion: All things are created out of
nothing (first mover; cause and effect by a source outside of and above ‘things’).
To the western mind,
nothingness is ‘non-existence’ often in a nihilistic sense.
2) Scientific view: Nothing can come from nothing (Law of
conservation of energy; natural law and chance)
3) Eastern view: Everything comes from nothing (everything
is interrelated and interdependent; everything also returns to ‘nothing’ as the
source.)
A table is called a ‘table’ since someone gave it that name
based on the material, the look, functionality and work-energy processes
required to create it. It does not come
out of nothing on it’s own; external and pre-existing matter make it what it
is; finished with a shining lacquer of a label called a “table”.
1) Consider the famous Zen riddle: “What was your original face before you
were conceived?”
Zen
riddles (called Koans, and which were often logically meaningless) often took
some generally familiar concept and attempted to turn it upside down in order
to get a monk to ‘rid himself’ of such concepts; to see that the conceptual
framework that we live in is a ‘man-mind’ one and not one based on an awareness
of ultimate reality (or an awareness of your relationship to it). This disharmony/disunity of thinking
(separation of heaven/earth/man) is felt to cause the strife, suffering and
evil in the world.
In
Buddhism, one has to see that in their philosophical construction there is
really no ‘me’; if there is no ‘me’, then how or why would I ask a question
like “where did I come from?” , “how did I get here”… To ask such questions
also assumes some sort of linearity in think (and time); a beginning (and
logically an ending). But Asian
philosophy sees life as a cyclical process like a wheel, without any defined
beginning and ending.
By asking
the monk a question that contained an idea they understood (face), the master
sought to show the monk that this is simply a time dependent, made-in-man’s-time
concept, yet confuses it by using time as a concept in his question. This koan is meant to show that our
definition/distinction/labeling of ‘things’ is based upon our own mental
construction; A face is part of a person but a person (like everything) must
comes from pre-existing things, as understood in the east: Everything is relational; ‘Things’ only exist, or are
understood due to their relationship (interdependence) to some pre- or co-existing
matter.
Applying this to ‘nothing’ means, that only the concept of ‘nothing’ can
be defined without appealing to pre-existing matter. Since it does not require
color, shape nor weight it precedes notions/concepts/definitions/distinctions; it
is a thing ‘in-and-of-itself’. In this sense, a ‘true’
definition/distinction is impossible; the definition/distinction of any one
thing involves the definition/distinction of everything else. Ultimately, this divides reality up into
parts. Daoism, Buddhism and Zen seek to
show that everything traces back to
being a part of a ONENESS; everything in it’s original form returns to nothing
and therefore is the same as nothing (SAMENESS). In the sense of this koan (and
most koans seek to point this out hundreds of different ways), everything comes
from one source and returns to that source, the Oneness; Nothingness. In Daoism, this is Dao.
2) Consider the Zen story:
A young student of Zen wanted to proudly show his understanding,
and called upon his master saying:
"The mind, Buddha, and sentient beings do not exist,
The true nature of phenomena is emptiness.
There is no realization, no delusion, no sage, no mediocrity.
There is no giving and nothing is received."
The master, Dokuon, who sat quietly with smoking pipe in hand suddenly hit Tamaoka
with his pipe.
This startled the monk and made him quite angry.
Dokuon asked, "If nothing exists, where did all this anger come
from?"
The idea that ‘nothing exists’ [in a negative sense—no
things exist] is a wrong construction of the eastern concept of nothingness. Yet the master purposely uses a wrong
construction as part of his argument. Things exist due to their having been
conceptualized and labeled as a distinct thing dependent upon other man-mind
concepts.
The eastern metaphysical concept of ‘nothing’ [in a positive
sense] has ‘inherent existence’; nothing else contributes towards it. What the master wants to point out is that (borrowing
from the original face construction) “original anger before it was conceived”,
comes from ‘nothing’; therefore ‘nothing’ is the source of and in unity with
anger. To see “one’s original face” or
to see where “one’s anger comes from” is to see nothingness; to see nothingness
is to see something; though something is not to be called something… Therefore,
it traces back to ‘nothingness’. In Daoism, this is Dao.
To achieve an understanding:
1)
‘Things’ do not have ‘inherent existence’;
everything comes from pre- or
co-existing ‘things’: INTERDEPENDENCE
2)
‘Inherent existence’ is a state in
which no interdependence arises or exists; NOTHINGNESS.
3)
Through a process of ‘reversal’, everything
eventually traces backwards to a single source: SAMENESS.
4)
Nothingness is the binding source of
everything; everything comes together with the source. ONENESS.
5)
In Daoism, this movement (identification
of anger back to nothing) is called: DAO.
6)
In Buddhism, it is the non-dividing of
an ‘undivided reality’: UNDIVIDED REALITY
7)
Man-mind concepts as ‘anger’ can now be
accepted as a meaningful term, within the ‘nothingness’ construction: ANGER
Zen Buddhism has a saying: “Before Zen, ‘mountains are mountains’ and
‘rivers are ‘rivers’; Realizing Zen, ‘mountains are not mountains’ and ‘rivers
are not rivers’; After Zen, ‘mountains are mountains’ and ‘rivers are rivers’
”.
This is three stages in two movements:
1. Before Zen, a man-mind time concept: a mountain is a mountain; (first
movement: from man-mind concept to nothing)
2. In Zen: a mountain is not a mountain (it is nothing); (second
movement: from nothing to undivided reality concept)
3. After Zen: Applying the concept to man-mind time, the mountain is
understood to be a mountain (ONE with nothing).
In Zen,
this is: ‘directly seeing to an
undivided reality’.
EMPTINESS
The Buddhist ‘emptying of the mind’ requires one to see ‘things’ for what
they are, as a ‘thing’. It is NOT
‘in-and-of-itself’; It
is ultimately interdependent on everything, by:
-
their
causes (pre-existing processes)
-
their
parts (made up of pre-existing
materials)
-
the
mind (labeled and given a name)
Consider the Zen riddle: “If you
see the Buddha, kill the Buddha”
In short, this is the killing (complete removal) of all
man-mind label/distinction/concept; If even ‘emptiness’ exists as a concept,
then one must learn to ‘empty themselves of emptiness’.
Consider these quotes to convey the idea of emptiness and/or
nothingness:
1) ”Form is exactly emptiness; emptiness exactly form” – The Heart Sutra
2) ”Everything
comes from nothing, and in turn, ultimately, everything is nothing, in this way
everything is one.” – S. Suzuki
3) ”When you cling to a hairbreadth
of distinction, heaven and earth are set apart…. The mind of absolute trust is beyond all
thought, all striving, is perfectly at peace, for in it there is no yesterday,
no today, no tomorrow.” Seng-Ts’an, 3rd
Patriarch of Zen. Poem , The mind of
Absolute Trust
4) ”But
completely experiencing the nature of the mind involves complete openness, or
complete nothingness; when you really experience the nature of the mind, there
is utter stillness with no observer observing anything, no experience, thought
or label.” -- Diamond Heart Sutra
5) ”Then you will come to think of things in a wide sense
and, taking the void as the Way, you will see the Way as void.” – The book of the five Rings , The Book of
the Void
6) "You
are only made of non-you elements". That is, your body is composed
entirely of non-body elements - dirt, plants, decomposed bodies, stardust, etc.” -- Vietnamese monk Thich Nhat
Hanh
7) ”Even emptiness itself,
which is seen as the ultimate nature of reality, is not absolute, nor does it
exist independently. We cannot conceive of emptiness as independent of a basis
of phenomena, because when we examine the nature of reality, we find that it is
empty of inherent or independent existence. Then if we are to take that
emptiness itself is an object and look for its essence, again we will find that
it is empty of inherent existence. Therefore the Buddha taught the emptiness of
emptiness." -- 14th Dali Lama
BUDDHISM:
Buddhism is an offspring of the religion of
The present life is based upon what one has done (good and bad) in past
lives; and the present life (which includes the past) is what the future life
will be based on. This presents a cycle called
the wheel of birth and death (Samsara), or the wheel of becoming. To be released from this cycle is the goal of
man and the result is a state of enlightenment, or Buddha-nature; It is the
point at which the concept of the ‘self’ gives way to the understanding of a
more original identification: One with Universal Mind.
Buddhism developed a formal manner in which to help man overcome his
wrong view of the self and ego, which includes: Three trainings, four noble
truths, five precepts, and the eightfold path.
The manner of this approach is called ‘following the middle way’ because
it is between self-indulgence and self-mortification (the latter which Buddha
subjected himself to for years and realized was wrong).
Buddhism developed a thorough ontology (metaphysics of existence, being, and
reality) but tends to avoid cosmology (where did we come from). Although Daoism is less interested in and
less grounded in intellectualized steps of behavior, they share some of the
same metaphysical concepts of man and ultimate reality; But for the Daoist, one
achieves it not by following prescribed steps; To avoid a heavy burden, just
don’t pick it up. Live simply, naturally and spontaneously, as nature.
As early as the second century, there were stories that Buddha was
actually a disciple of Lao Zi. (compare the ‘lost years of Christ’ in
Buddhism received criticism from Confucians and wrote “The Disposition of
Errors”, a defense of Buddhism around 500 AD.
When asked why the Buddhist system is not mentioned in the Confucian
Classics [of five works], the response is that not all wisdom can come from one
person or writing. When asked to
reconcile Buddhist practices as appearing in opposition of Confucian ideals, it
was pointed out that Confucius praised rulers who went against the rule. When asked why foreign (barbarian) ways
should change what is Chinese, the response was that gold and jade do not harm
each other. In other answers, the text
quotes from Confucian and Daoist texts. This
‘defense’ showed that Buddhism had some antagonism from Confucianism rather
than Daoism, although it also revealed it’s thorough understanding of the
different philosophies but willingness to embrace them all.
Buddhism’s entry in
CFL previous
posted comments on Buddhism:
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=20694&view=findpost&p=248968
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?s=&showtopic=20694&view=findpost&p=248991
ZEN
BUDDHISM:
The actual term Zen is the
Japanese pronunciation of the Chinese word chan2 (禅), which
was based on another foreign term for meditation. The history of Zen traces back to the
teachings of Bodhidharma who arrived in Southern China from
Bodhidharma, the first Patriarch
of Zen Buddhism (also credited with teaching the shaolin monks breathing
techniques which would develop into Shaolin Kung fu), was well versed in the
sutras popular in
A monk complained to the first
patriarch of his unsettled mind and asked the master to pacify his mind. The master told the monk to bring out (ie:
physically present) his mind and he would pacify it. When the monk replied this was impossible to
do the master replied, “There, I have pacified your mind”. The monk was Hui-ko, the soon to be second
patriarch of Zen.
A hallmark of Zen teaching is mind transmission; Bodhidharma, wrote these
famous lines on the mysterious method of Zen:
“A
special transmission outside the sutras;
No
reliance upon words or letters;
Direct
point to the very mind;
Seeing
into one’s own nature.”
[This is similar to the idea presented in the Dao De Jing’s (The Way and
it’s Power) opening lines of a ‘nameless’ dao which cannot be spoken since man-mind
labels create man-mind reality, which separate us from a reality of one with
nature.]
Hui Neng, the sixth patriarch of
Zen, penned The Platform Sultra. As a
child, he heard a Buddhist reciting a passage out of the Diamond Sutra and soon
took up a 500 miles journey to
Monk:
“Our body
is the Bodi-tree
And our
mind a mirror bright.
Carefully
we wipe them hour by hour,
And let
no dust alight.”
Hui Neng:
“There is no Bodi-tree
Nor stand
of a mirror bright.
Since all
is void,
Where can
the dust alight?”
The master was so shocked at the depth of understanding of this cook’s
post that he approached Hui Neng in the night, passed him the robe of
confirmation—to be the next patriarch of Zen—and urged him to immediately leave
and stay underground since some who coveted the rope would certainly try to do
him harm.
Another of Hui Neng’s famous counter comments comes during his wanderings
in seclusion:
Two monks argued over the movement of a flag in the wind; One stated the
flag was moving and the other that the wind was moving. Hui Neng passing by, stated, “You are both wrong. It is your mind that
moves”. (It is your mind which makes
up concepts such as flag or wind)
The monk who posted above
attempted to usurp the claim of patriarch and setup the ‘northern school’ of
Zen (gradual enlightenment); The gradual method permitted a slower response to
attainment of enlightenment. Hui Neng’s branch became the southern school
(sudden enlightenment). The sudden
method sought to ‘shock’ or ‘shake’ the mind into a sudden realization of the
undivided nature of reality; Thus, Hui Neng is considered the father of Modern
Zen. A few of the famous masters in his
line include Mao Tsu, Huang Po and Rin Zai; The Rin Zai School would eventually
go to
Zen Buddhism, Buddhism and Daoism all maintain the concept that man has a
faulty view of the self and the universe; Man should not ‘cut himself out of
reality’, but see the undivided nature of reality. All three hold to some form of ‘reversal’ or
returning to their original state; In
Daoism, reversal is the movement of Dao; In Buddhism, the ‘wheel’ realizes the
return; For Zen, a proper view of reality and various methods encourage one to
return to a state of ONE with Reality.
For Buddhism and Zen, this was a state of enlightenment. [For the wheel of becoming, compare the
existentialist Sartre’s similar view; ‘we are always in a state of becoming’]
In order
to get to the point of seeing reality undivided, riddles and various methods
were employed (ie: shocking or striking); later methods used hours of
meditating on a koan in order to try and empty the mind of all distinctions that
divide or cut up reality. Inflicting a small amount of pain in some way was
common, as well as countering questions with seemingly irrelevant or absurd
answers. Examples follow:
1) The
famous koan of ‘What is the sound of one
hand clapping?’ is the ultimate question/expression of ONENESS; In
response, a monk who understands will thrust one hand into air to reflect his
ONE hand as THE undivided reality.
2)
As is the story of the very young child-monk
who mimicked the masters one finger thrust at random times. One day, the master cut off the boy’s finger,
and as the boy cried the master thrust a single finger into the air. The boy instinctively mimicked in response by
thrusting up his hand and extending the missing finger. The boy is said to have immediately ‘seen to
the undivided reality’ ; he’s mental idea of having extended a ‘physical finger’
which was not physically there made him “See
into one’s own nature.”
3)
As well, the puzzling question of “how can a bird come and go?” is also a
direct expression of the futility of dividing reality; The bird is simply at one
‘moment’ right ‘here’, right ‘now’; there cannot be going or coming.
4)
And again, the obscure answer of ‘the air in the mountains this time of year
is quite refreshing’ to the question: “how
much does 10 lbs of flax cost?” is
also a direct expression of an undivided reality; The cost of flax (as a
man-mind concept) returns back to a universal ONENESS as does the answer
concerning space and time (another man-mind concept); Thus is the concept of
“SAMENESS” of all things.
5)
One famous ‘blinding one’s eyes to see’ was the renowned sutra reader
who had read every classic text he could to understand enlightenment; One night
he went to visit a famous Zen master.
When the visitor hesitated to enter, the master went and got a candle;
as the visitor grabbed the candle into his possession and stepped forward, the
master blew out the candle. At that
moment, the sutra ‘expert’ understood the undivided nature of reality; The
flash of an empty universe in which all things are gathered was realized as the
candle blew out.
The quintessential method and position of Zen is “nowness” , “life now”; living
life in the fullest and simplest way possible regardless of what one is doing
at that moment is a ‘Zen moment’; one of acting naturally in accord with nature
(naturally without effort is a more Daoist idea than Buddhist one);
The
classic Zen saying goes: “When hungry, eat, when tired, sleep”.
CFL Zen
Buddhism Stories:
http://candleforlove.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=11119
Daoism as a philosophy (道家- Daojia) and as a religion (道教 - Daojiao) are
two traditional and distinct branches.
This write-up only discusses the philosophical principles and it’s
relationship with Traditional Chinese medicine, Feng Shui, Ying Yang, and
internal Martial Arts, as well as some discussion on the most important texts
in daoism: Yi Jing/I Ching/Book of Change, Dao De Ching/Tao Te Ching/The Way and
it’s Power and Huang
Di Nei Jing/The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of Medicine.
To see Daoist Scrolls: http://www.edepot.com/taoart.html
Dao ( 道 ) - path, way ; Character is made up of two
parts; a man walking. The term in the
west is ‘Tao’.
Left side:
辶 – chuo4 radical; to walk.
Right
side: 首 – shou3: head identified by the
long hair pinned up signifying an adult;
De ( 德 ) – power, virtue; character is made up of a road, straight, and
heart. In Daoism, the person of virtue
is one who is in harmony with Dao; The virtue of Dao becomes the virtue of
man.
Left side: 彳- left half of road (chi fu)
Right
side: 直 – zhi2, straight; 心 – xin1, heart
Laozi wrote the definitive text of Daoism, called the Dao De Jing (DDJ) /Tao
Te Ching/The Way and it’s Power. The
Zhuangzi is another often cited text and their combined importance would be
known as Lao-Zhuang. As well, the Huang
Di Nei Jing (HDNJ)/ Yellow Emperors Classic of Medicine and the Yi Jing (YJ)/I
Ching/Book of Change are ancient texts. Other
texts would include the Huainanzi, and the Guanzi.
Dao: simply means a “way” or “path”;
by extension, the philosophical principle, even used by Confucius ("Set your aspirations on the Dao, hold to virtue (de), rely on your ren, and relax in the study of the
arts."), in the sense of a ‘proper path in life’; a
pattern or standard by which the universe is governed, and man should likewise follow. The cultivation of Dao results in the
harnessing of it’s virtue or power, de. The metaphysical characteristics of Dao
include, Dao as the source of all things.
Some important concepts in Daoism include:
1) Metaphysical Dao leads to discussions on Dao as the source of
all things (everything finds it’s origin in Dao and returns to Dao), and the
understanding of Being (you) and non-being (wu); not exactly “is”
/ “is not” as in the west.
2) Change (motion and rest; Dao, through the movement of Tai Ji
and manifested in Yin Yang).
3) Action without action, effortless action, (wei wu wei)
4) Spontaneity or naturalness (zi ran)
5) Harmony (balance of the two forces of Yin Yang within the three
poles of man-earth-heaven) has it’s origin in the belief that nature acts
(unfolds, changes) naturally without effort (zi ran); doing without doing (wei
wu wei).
6) Reversal (a natural outcome of change) and a return to the
source.
Dao as
a universal process, source of all things and everywhere:
Dao also is described as more than just a ‘way’, but the ultimate principle
or process of change that occurs within the universal realm of man-earth-heaven;
the reality from which all things have their origin and their return. That Dao is the ultimate source of change and
movement also meant that Dao is everywhere and in everything.
The Zhuangzi text stated:
"It exists even in human waste.”
Believing that Zhuangzi was
kidding, Dongguozi thought better of saying anything more.
But Zhuangzi went on, "You
want me to be specific about where dao is. I can not make you see where it is
unless I can make you see that it is found in the most lowly and common things.
"
Cosmologically speaking:
Dao (the
source of everything in the universe) is the process of reality and reflects
the historically important idea that ‘change’ is a fundamental defining
characteristic of the universe, of life as a process. This first occurs in the primeval state of
the universe; An empty state called Wu Ji. The way of Wu Ji is Chaos, an
energized empty space. The movement of
Chaos is Tai Ji, in rest, it reunites (empties); in movement it divides
(energizes, creating Qi). This energy
is divided into the interdependent poles, Yin Yang. Yin Yang represents a state of harmony based
on balance; disharmony based on imbalance.
The interaction between the two interdependent forces generates the changes throughout the universe.
Origins:
The question of origins naturally arises, and how to resolve where
‘things’ come from or how they come about.
This is a complicated topic which requires comments on ‘being’ and
‘non-being’ which are not necessarily the same as used in the west, where they
form a more dualistic counterpart. In
the west, being is ‘existence’ and the ability to think remains as the
surviving exemption to doubt (you cannot doubt away your ability to think). Thought and being as the same was put forth
by Parmenides, but famously stated by Descartes as: “I think, therefore I
am”. Sartre preferred the construction
of a ‘thinking thing’. Thus, for the
west, philosophy is generally grounded in ontological questions (questions about being and existence).
For the west, non-being ranged from it’s impossibility (Parmenides—universe
is an eternal ONE being but static, also Aristotle) to it’s necessity (see
atomism in Democritus and Leucippus —atoms or void; Plato—god [non-being]
created the [non-eternal] cosmos; All of these Greek Philosophers lived about
the same time as the Warring period and the “School of Six”; contemporaneous
with the rise of Daoism and Confucianism.) The central issues of being, existence, and
phenomena gave rise in the twentieth century to phenomenology and
existentialism.
In Daoism (as opposed to Hinduism or Buddhism where deep metaphysical
discussions occur and the concept of becoming is important--Process Philosophy--and
where atomism pre-dates the Greeks—and some debate exists whether this was
actually imported to the Greeks), being and non-being have no common nor
relational etymology; They are not set off as contradictory or
necessarily distinct but can have some sort of mutual co-existence, much the
same way as Yin Yang are not independent nor pure forms of two ‘things’, their
function and manifestation can only occur because of their co-existence and
interdependency, yet can also be described as two forms.
But the real difference is not in the manifestation but the deconstruction
through the process of reversal: For Buddhism, it is a reversal to nothingness;
for Dao, it is a reversal to Dao. Some brief
comments were made in the Part I, Introduction, that although ‘being’ is said
to come from ‘non-being’, this is not a ‘creation from nothing’. Since Dao is considered as the source of
everything which implies (if the terms must be use) that being and non-being
co-exist as does Yin Yang; This is more akin to the Buddhist notion of the
undivided reality and all things tracing to nothing (becoming Sameness or
Oneness). Neither is this to be
understood as a violation of the philosophical and scientific thought that ‘nothing
can come from nothing’: It is more a principle of self-generation
(evolution). An eternally, dynamically
changing universe simply unfolds of itself in a ‘self-so’ manner (zi ran,
naturalness). A separate write-up would have to explain this more thoroughly
and probably in contrast to the western view so that the eastern oneness can be
understood against western dualism (and maybe western non-dualism as well).
Change:
Change is the fundamental principle of the universe. That change is inherent in nature is both the
example to follow and the inseparable whole that affects the part, which
includes man. As a primary principle, it
is grounded in cosmology and the basis of the classic text YJ, The book of
Change.
It is interesting to note that the Greek Heraclitus lived at approximately the same time as
Laozi and taught that life dynamically changes through opposites as unity;
“Everything flows”, “cold things warm themselves”, “we are and are not”. His famous line that “one cannot step in the same river twice” is based upon the idea
that change has occurred (the water one steps into at one time is not the same
water one steps into at another time).
His concept of an eternal ‘becoming’, neither beginning nor end
(everything that exists has always existed and will always exist), is very
similar to the Buddhist and Daoist concept of life as a cyclic process. Although the existentialist Sartre also
taught the idea of ‘becoming’, his famed saying ‘man makes himself’ sounds a little more like a socialized Confucian
than a naturalized Daoist.
Action
without Action:
wei wu
wei: 为无为
(traditional: 為無為 ) ,
‘action [that is] non-action’ ; ‘doing [as] non-doing’. The metaphysical characteristics have been
mentioned; The personal characteristics would be in the sense of acting/doing without
interference [of the mind] or completely on instinct; ‘acting alone’ (free of
distraction, thought, etc). This should
be understood as contrasted to the Confucians predilection for
institutionalized and prescribed action and ethics.
Spontaneity
/ Naturalness:
zi ran:
自然 (often spelled as tzu-jan, reflecting the
strong Wades-Giles influence prior to pinyin) In this usage, ZI means self or natural,
as in ‘without cause’; RAN means to exist, to be, is. Their combined meaning is to exist without
cause or without influence; “To be without cause/origin”, or “Self-so”.
(Interesting to note that RAN is not the word used when describing the
existence of beings in Daoism, since these ontological issues are not the concern
of Daoism. Rather, Daoist text tended to
use the Chinese YOU (to have) when referring to ‘being’; This could possibly be
understood as their concern is one ‘has being-ness’ not that one ‘is a being’…
in the same way that the Confucian ideal man has virtue, or acquires it, and
the Daoist ideal man has de, or acquires it through harmonizing back to Dao).
Harmony:
There are various ‘ways’ one can live life, but Daoism seeks harmony of
the three principle spheres: man’s way (ren dao), earth’s way (di dao) and
heaven’s way (tian dao); The goal of Daoism is for man to align (return) his
way to that of earth and heaven.
The
‘heavenly way’ (tian dao) is spontaneous, natural action without interference (zi
ran) from any outside influence or any pre-existent cause; naturally doing
without effort or plan (wei wu wei); naturally manifesting its movements (ie:
seasons) and naturally affecting nature and humans; the universal process of
change unfolding.
One
eventually reduces or restricts their efforts, thoughts, and actions to what is
necessarily natural; In this sense, ‘restrict’ is a natural and logical
reduction; A wind blows east for the
very reason it is not blowing west. At
that moment, the direction of the wind is restricted to the east but not
because of any restraining effort or external force; It’s a natural restriction
due to the natural course of movement, of the unity of the universe. This is considered Heaven’s way; In Daoism,
simply “Dao”. Once man’s way is that of
heaven’s way, man is said to have returned to Dao, doing without doing.
The Confucian seeks to create harmony and change in order to develop
moral principle (li) and humanness (ren) for the purpose of cultivating the
ideal man (jun zi). The Daoist prefers a
more passive approach, allowing one’s nature (man’s way—ren dao) to respond in
accordance with the nature of earth (earth’s way--di dao) and heaven (heaven’s
way—tian dao). To operate off of
man-mind standards is to cause one’s nature (natural state) to stagnate;
Planning prevents and ultimately suffocates spontaneity/naturalness (zi ran).
The Daoist preferred to decrease stagnation by promoting a state of
naturalness, or harmony (similar line of thought in TCM where Qi stagnation
causes disharmony). In this way, one
returns to nature, or returns to Dao.
This is not a form of idealized or passive fatalism, where a person
feels that they are the victim of circumstance or of cause-effect. In eastern thinking, there is no separation
of ‘you’ and the ‘circumstance’; no separation of man-earth-heaven. Life happens (changes are a cyclic process);
It is not happening ‘to you’, it is just happening. The separation of the ‘you’ is a mental
construction which Buddhism, Zen, and Daoism do not hold to. If one views some life circumstance as
happening “to me”, this ‘happening’ and this ‘me’ are both mental constructions
that break apart the unity of man-earth-heaven and tends to lead to a world
view based upon cause-effect and dualism.
The proper metaphysical construction of harmony is in unity,
Man-Earth-Heaven; or a deconstruction of the mental constructions of labels or
dualities. Their harmony to the
environment (and it’s natural influence on man) also leads to social behaviors
and ethics, and superstitions; The avoidance of bad luck (Huo) and the desire
for good luck (Fu) is mentioned later.
The
concept of harmony (unity) extends to many areas, particularly the body. To be in harmony with nature is for nature to
have influence over your health (see later sections on TCM and Gigong). There is a harmony between the heart and mind
in classical Chinese; there is no separation of the two and the character 心 (xin1) was often translated as
heart-mind. This would also be known as
Xin Theory. The final step away from
spiritually dependency occurred when Tian (heaven or nature) as a guiding
external force was replaced with self-reliance; a reliance on man and his
heart-mind. In principle, the heart-mind
are co-joined and work together (ie: akin to Yin Yang). Thus, one can rationally respond in even
emotional circumstances. That the
Chinese behavior has at times been called ‘stoic’ is to misunderstand that heart-mind
connection and not to fully appreciate what the Roman Stoics achieved in their
philosophy as well. There is also a
harmony between their philosophy and language and how it influences their
thoughts/behavior. The various harmonies
are a direct result of their world view that everything is a part of ONE;
everything is interdependent.
Reversal:
All things return to Dao (that part of everything which can act without
interference finds its origin in Dao.)
This reversal has two meanings:
1. Returning to the Root, a process
of reversal:
“Heaven’s
way is circular, each thing returns to it’s roots” -- DDJ
“reversal
is the movement of Dao”.-- DDJ
“Be one
with Dao”. – DDJ
[Compare to the idea in Buddhism of the undivided reality and that
everything traces back to nothingness, creating a SAMENESS and ONENESS].
Since Dao is the ultimate reality and source, it does not undergo change
or movement itself (The [energetic] impulse of the movement is Tai Ji through
Yin Yang).
A popular Daoist saying is: “To
work on learning day by day is to increase;
To work on Dao day by day is to decrease.”
This decrease is simply the stripping away of socially taught/learned
ways in exchange for a return to a natural way; It’s the deconstruction of the
man-mind concepts.
Reversal is central to Dao and particularly in the DDJ, where it states:
人法地, ren2 fa3 di4 , man models earth
地法天, di4 fa3 tian1 earth models heaven
天法道, tian1 fa3 dao4 heaven models dao
道法自然. Dao4 fa3 zi4 ran2 dao models natural spontaneity
法 – fa3 (Left part: water, Right part: go). Way of doing, to pattern or model after, to
emulate. (Interesting to note, although
I find no support for this coincidence, that this character—fa3--is the one
used to show the patterned return to Dao… and that Dao is often compared to
water. The character could be
pictorially understood as, “water’s movement or going or water’s way”).
2. As
to the interrelationship of opposite extremes:
The DDJ states: “Ill fortune is that beside which good fortune lies;
Good fortune is that beneath which all fortune lurks”. [Hegal said that everything involves it’s
own negation; Heraclitus
spoke of the ‘unity of opposites’]. For the Daoist, the key to their [emotional]
success is remaining cautious in times of prosperity and hopeful in times of
trouble; maintaining a point of view of the indistinguishable unity of
opposites and the natural reversal that occurs; movement and change are fundamental.
The
Confucian would prefer for man to actively take control of his situation, his
actions, his emotions; to be the master of his destiny… to ‘make himself’ [to
borrow from Sartre]; The ‘virtuous man’ (perfect man) is without inappropriate
emotions. Anything that may cause loss of face is avoided at all costs.
A practical application that might be said to have turned superstitious
practice can be seen in Fu (福) and Huo
(祸), which share the common left
symbol for an alter but the right side represent Fortune and Misfortune, respectively; good luck and bad luck; blessing
and disaster. The opposing interplay of
life’s ups and downs can be seen in the Chinese proverb, “Extreme joy leads
to misery”.( 乐极生悲, le ji
sheng bei).
Exercised self-control over one’s emotions makes a happy event less
likely to descend to misery; for disaster to really be blessing in
disguise. Although the developments of
these ideas are Daoist, the application of self-control gives it a Confucian
touch. The fact that FU (fortune) is
ultimately sought at all costs and HUO (misfortune) is to be avoided at all
costs gives rise to it’s importance in the social applications of ‘face’; One
doesn’t just avoid lose of face, one also seeks to accumulate or build up good
face. Couple this with their concept of
unity to the environment (and it’s natural influence on man) and one doesn’t
even want to speak or hear of HUO-like issues; The mere mention of some
disaster, bad outcome, ill-fortune, however hypothetical, becomes a potential
reality and now can happen.
Applying Confucian controlled human emotions
to the concept of reversal would suggest that the ‘emotional middle’ is where
reversal is non-existent; there is no movement, since to be at either extreme simply
means a reversal will inevitably occur. Although this controlled middle way is an
antithesis to Daoism (movement is the way of Dao), it has an interesting
physical equivalent; if you bore a hole through the middle of a piece of wood,
you do not diminish its strength but boring a hole towards either edge
will. The idea of being in the emotional middle is a
hallmark of the Chinese; thus manifesting a philosophical principle by
combining both the influences of Confucianism and Daoism; in this case, the two
opposing philosophies become a pragmatic ‘unity of opposites’.
The Story of the Taoist Farmer:
http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/Taoist_Farmer.html
Taoist excerpts:
http://members.tripod.com/~wa8914/tao.htm
A little bit of Taoism
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~chrislees/Taoism/intro-taoism.html
NEO-TAOIST
CONTRIBUTIONS:
The
Neo-Taoist wrote commentaries on the earlier Taoist works. A few examples of their influence and
clarification of certain Taoist beliefs follow:
Tao as nothingness
While
Tao is said to have no name, it was the Neo-Taoist who fully developed the idea
that Dao is really nothingness;
“The Tao is everywhere,
but everywhere it is nothing”.
“The Tao is capable of
nothing. To say that anything comes from the Tao means it comes from itself.”
There is no creator
“We may say that the
Tao is prior to things. But the Tao is
nothing. Since it is nothing, how can it
be prior to things? We do not know what
is prior to things, yet things are continuously produced. This shows that things are spontaneously
what they are; there is no creator of things.”
“I would like to ask if
the Creator is or is not? If he is not,
how can he create things. But if he is,
he is simply one of the things, and how can one thing produce another? Therefore, there is no creator and everything
produces itself and is not produced by another.
This is the natural way of the universe”.
Being eternally exists
“Non-being cannot
become being, but being also cannot become non-being. Though being may can in thousands of ways, it
cannot change itself into non-being. Being eternally exists.”
No such thing as right
or wrong
“If right is really
absolutely right, in the world there should be none that considers it to be
wrong; If the wrong is absolutely wrong there should be none that considers it
to be right. The fact that there are uncertainty between right and wrong and a
confusion in distinctions show that the distinctions are due to partiality of
view. All things function according to
their nature and enjoy themselves.
Between them there is no distinction between right and wrong.”
Live according to one’s
own nature, impulse (zi ran)
Let
the ear hear, eye see, mouth taste, nose smell. Obstruction of nature causes
the vexations of life.
Aesthetic over romantic
This
seeks to explain the natural manner in which the eye will behold, yet the heart
admires instead of desires.
Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM):
The
principle source of TCM is the Daoist text, Huang Di Nei Jing – The Yellow
Emperor’s Classic of Medicine. There
are many pharmacological, herbal, and clinical works written that reflect the
TCM point of view.
TCM dates back to 5,000 BC where peasants are thought to have found a
physician in nature and used herbs for ailments and general health. The philosophical origins of TCM are rooted
in Daoism’s belief in harmonizing with nature, Yin Yang, and the five
elements. TCM is based on the
interaction of the body in relation to nature, food, internal organs, Qi
energy, and emotions. Foods are classified
by their energy value rather than calories.
The ‘five’ Emotions are grouped to an Organ:
1) Joy-Heart;
Sadness-Spleen;
2) Grief-Lungs;
3) Fear-Kidneys;
4) Anger-Liver.
Organs are divided into Yin (primary and responsible for Qi and blood)
and Yang (secondary and responsible transport and eliminate food); one from each
is paired:
1) Heart/Small
Intestine;
2) Spleen/Stomach;
3) Lungs/Large
Intestines;
4) Kidney/Urinary
Bladder;
5) Liver/Gall
Bladder.
The organs are interrelated by the ‘five’ element principle; disharmony
in one can lead to disharmony in another.
There are 12 regular meridians (comprising over 400 points) named after
the body’s major organs and 8 others not associated with any one particular
organ (approximately 2000 points exist).
The flow of energy (Qi) in any meridian reflects the state of that organ;
tracing the flow of Qi through the meridian can explain the emotions. TCM treats the person as a whole instead of
treating a single symptom, condition, illness, or disease. For this reason TCM is not reserved to the
administering of medicine but one can apply TCM’s underlying principles in a
holistic manner to ensure one is medically sound (in a TCM way of
thinking—proper nourishment, and regulating Qi and emotions will keep one
healthy); thus administering the principles of TCM can be via a physician, martial
arts, or one’s self.
Illness, Qi imbalances or emotional disharmony can impact the organs
which in turn can be diagnosed with reference to a patient’s history and
manifestations to their body. Since the
body will manifest the illness, emotion, or Qi imbalance in various places in
or near the surface of the body, a few other methods include reading, massaging
or manipulating certain areas: feet,
hands, face, and various ‘points’ on the body corresponding to organs or body
parts. The underlying principles of TCM
are applied in treatment (acupuncture, herbs, massage), exercise (internal
Martial Arts--Tai Ji, Gi Gong), and living (diet, rest, emotions, etc). To be
most effective, often the treatments are used in combination.
The twelve Meridians: http://www.yinyanghouse.com/acupuncturepoints/locations_theory_and_clinical_applications
Points and Meridians: http://www.acuxo.com/index.asp
Meridians: http://www.geocities.com/altmedd/acupuncture/theory/meridians.htm
Taoist Herbology
http://www.taohealingarts.com/herbology.html
Chinese Physicians of the Past:
http://www.itmonline.org/docs/famous.htm
History of Oriental Medicine:
http://www.acupuncture-center.org/HistoryofOrientalMedicine.html
English-Chinese Medical Dictionary
Feng – ( 风 – wind)
Shui – ( 水 – water)
Traditional
characters: ( 風水 ) – The traditional character of ‘Feng’ contains the picture of a sail and
insect pushed around by the wind; Life is seen as capable within air or
water. The book of Burials stated that Qi (energy) is said to ride on the
back of the wind but rest with the waters; harmonizing with nature. Thus, wind and water are means by which Qi is
controlled or regulated. The
metaphysical implications are: avoid the scattering caused by the wind
(dispersal is death) and encouraging the retention caused by water (binding is
birth).
Picture the year 2737
BC, and Chinese Emperor Shen Nung sitting under a tree while his servant boils some
water. A leaf from a wild tea tree dropped into the water and Shen Nung decided
to try this serendipitous brew. Finding
the drink a pleasant and relaxing flavor, he ordered extensive planting of the
crop. Thus runs the mythological story
of the origin of tea in china. Yet, one
can hardly doubt such a ancient setting of reclining along the still waters
with a view of mountains, where man and nature shared each others company.
Feng Shui is considered an ancient philosophy of practical
considerations and was first documented in the Eastern Han dynasty (25-220). This living practice (and burial practice) of
harmonizing with nature is said to have been started prior to the invention of
writing (Shang dynasty 1400-1040 BC) and called ‘
"Raise the head
and observe the sky above. Lower the head and observe the environment around
us,"
The ancient Yin Yang theory as developed in cosmology and universal
‘change’ (I-Ching) is the source for Feng Shui practices. Formal methods (ie: inclusion of compass) and
practical applications reach a peak in the Song dynasty (1126-1278) in Zhu Xi,
who was a Confucian scholar. According to Zhu Xi:
In the beginning one
abstract principle or monad, called the "absolute nothing," which
evolved out of itself the "great absolute." This abstract principle
or monad, the great absolute, is the primordial cause of all existence. When it
first moved, its breath or vital energy congealing, produced the great male
principle. When it had moved to the uttermost it rested, and in resting produced
the female principle.”
Instead of
Yin and Yang as the source of all movement, Zhu Xi substituted Qi (energy) and
Li (principles, Confucian term). But the borrowing of the Yin Yang construction
is unmistakable: Yang is the male principle which congeals and upon reaching its
opposite extreme pole of rest it produces Yin; Their source is Tai Ji (great
absolute) which evolved from Wu Ji (absolute nothing).
Compare
the parallel Confucian Yin Yang cosmology:
'From Wu Ji comes Tai Ji.
When Tai Ji moves it
creates Yang.
When movement reaches
its extreme, stillness emerges.
In stillness Yin is
born. Thus movement and stillness follow each other...'
The
influences of this ancient practice over time would include: Energy (Qi),
position (geomancy, divination by geographical position), interactive forces
(Yin Yang) and direction (ba gua from I Ching for determining directional
issues).
The four
periods of Feng Shui can be viewed as:
1)
Ancient
– Early identification with nature and divination through use of the Ba Gua
2)
Qin-Jin
Dynasties: Taoist masters use of this
makes it known as an important practice
3)
Sui-Qing
Dynasties: Divination arts reached their peak and decline
4)
Modern:
Form (the perfect site) and Compass (the perfect direction) schools, although
ancient in origin are two forms used today.
In use,
Feng Shui is an attempt to connect with the physical world and space, to
determine proper placement, and to harness energy (Qi) to bring about
happiness, health, wealth, love, and luck.
Ba Guo
used in Feng Shui:
http://crystalclearfengshui.com/images/bagua_poster1.jpg
History of
Feng Shui
http://www.fengshui.co.uk/FengShuiHistory.htm
http://www.feng-shui-architects.com/tradition-history.htm
Qigong and Tai Ji:
Qigong and
Tai Ji (Tai Chi) have evolved into popular forms of internal martial arts,
where movement is the basis for the regulation of Qi, improvement of health,
and training in martial arts.
A popular
story about the origin of Tai Ji is that a Daoist in the Wu Dong mountains
observed a white crane attempting to capture a snake, yet the flexibility of
the snake allowed it’s escape; softness overcame strength and thus was born the
idea of Tai Chi.
Qigong as
a martial arts form traces to Daoists in the Wu Dong mountains. Qigong is broader than Tai Ji in application
and can include forms of medical healing, massage, meditation, and martial
arts.
Qigong:
The
actually term Qi Gong is relatively new, but the practices and arts utilized
are very old and originate in Daoist traditions. The practice includes the study of Qi through
training, meditating, regulating, and balancing an individual’s internal Qi circulating
in the body in relation to external Qi.
Qi -
( 气 , 氣– air, internal energy ). Original character was “nothing” on top and “fire”
below—no fire. When Yin Yang are in
balance in the body, a state of ‘no fire’ is attained. Later the character became ‘air’ on top
and ‘rice’ on the bottom—Qi circulates due
to inhaling air and consumption of food (rice).
The
ancient recording of Qi and breathing dates back to Shang dynasty oracle
bones. Modern practitioners, based on a
long history of developed techniques, explain Qi as circulating through the
body’s meridians.
Gong ( 功 – accomplishment ).
Often a replacement for “Gongfu” (kungfu)… Accomplishment comes from energy and time
devoted to the study of an art.
There are
three principle energies/powers in the universe:
1)
Heaven
– (Tian Qi – common phrase to refer to weather) governs weather, climate,
natural disasters.
2)
Earth
(Di Qi) – If the earth Qi energy is in balance, plants and animals can live.
3)
Man
(Ren Qi) – persons, animals, plants…
Since Qi
is the source of life, if one understands how it functions and knows how to
regulate it, one should be able to live a long and healthy life. Human Qi is affected and controlled by Heaven
Qi and Earth Qi; the latter two determines the destiny of the first. If one does not regulate Qi in the proper
way, one may become sick; this sickness is symptomatic of disharmony and
manifested in the body in various forms by which a TCM practitioner can ‘read’
and provide some remedy (whether herbal, acupuncture/massage or internal
martial arts).
In Qigong,
an imbalance in any of the ‘three treasures’ can create illness. There are three categories of causes of
diseases:
1)
Internal
2)
External
3)
Non-Internal-External;
Examples would include, emotions, weather, and excess indulgences.
Qigong
usually includes breathing patterns to help establish a balance of Qi. Qigong can focus on health, spirituality,
and fitness, and also includes a more medical healing function (both self and
external to another person).
During the
life time of the Buddha, the following inscription relates:
In breathing, one must proceed as
follows.
One holds the breath and it is collected together.
If it is collected, it expands.
When it expands it goes down.
When it goes down it becomes quiet.
When it becomes quiet it will solidify.
When it becomes solidified it will begin to sprout.
After it has sprouted, it will grow.
As it grows it will be pulled back again,
to the upper regions of the body.
When it has been pulled back,
it will reach the crown of the head.
Above, it will press against the crown of the the head.
Below, it will press downwards.
The
Zhuangzi states of the Daoists’ breathing practice: "The
men of old breathed clear down to their heels."
CLASSICS:
Yi Jing (YJ) – I Ching, Book of Changes
“The great book of nature is
written in mathematical language” –
Galileo
Yi 易 - ease
or change. (Original Chinese symbol was
a moon (Yin) underneath a sun (Yang))
Jing 经 -
book
Ba Gua 八卦 , 8 Trigrams
Gua - 卦 – trigrams
Left side:
圭 – Gui: Jade Tablet, Sun dial
Right
side: 卜 – Bu: divine
As the sun hits the sun pole, it’s
shadow extends to the ground and breaks across up to 6 [solid] lines; at
different times of day, solid and broken lines are represented. Sun Post: http://www.chinesefortunecalendar.com/CLC/Images/SunPost.jpg
The earliest written is form dates to the 2nd
century BC, although its practice is said to date back to Fu Xi (2700 BC).
The YJ dates back to 2700 BC but it’s
practice may date back as far as 5000 BC.
The written text has 64 chapters explaining each of 64 hexagrams (6
lines in combination of solid and broken);
The 64 hexagrams are an 8x8 Hexagram arrangement; Each hexagram is two Trigams (3 lines) stacked. The study of the YJ is the deepest
level of attainment for practitioners of Chinese medicine, meditation, and
martial arts. Confucius stated late in
his life that could he add years to his life, he would add 50 to the study of
the YJ so as to avoid falling into error.
The Ba Gua, is the octagonal
arrangement of [8] trigrams [Tai Ji occupies the center, thus nine spaces are
often depicted in a 3x3 square]. It is basically
a binary and octal system; a system of interpreting the interactive forces of
Yin Yang in order to harmonize oneself with nature, to create good fortune, and
to predict the future).
The
YJ appendix states the follow cosmological formula:
"In the Changes there is the
Supreme Ultimate (Tai Ji), which produced the Two Forms (Yin Yang). These Two
Forms produced the four emblems, and these four emblems produced the eight
trigrams (Ba Gua). The eight trigrams serve to determine good and bad fortune
(for human affairs), and from this good and bad fortune spring the great
activities (of human life)."
The
progressive construction to the Ba Gua / 8 Trigrams / 64 Hexagram / 9 Spaces is
as follows:
1) One becomes Two forms: These [Tai Ji] ‘changes’ are represented by the
interaction of Yin and Yang (Liang-I, 2 symbols); The possible combinations are
0 and 1.
1)
Yin lines (Yin-I) are broken and
binary of 0).
2)
Yang lines (Yang-I) are solid and can
be represented as binary of 1; (the Chinese character for 1 is a solid line.)
2) Two becomes four emblems: Stacking the 1 and 0 lines will produce four
possible combinations: 11, 10, 01, 00
3) Four becomes eight trigrams: Stacking another layer will produce eight
possible combinations: 111,011,101,001,110,010,100,000 (primal forces, often associated with
objects, animals, body parts, directions, etc.)
4) 8 Trigrams multiplied by itself,
making 64 hexagrams represent all possible situations and changes in the
universe.
5) With Tai Ji in the center space of 8 Trigrams, there are nine spaces; (3x3 box).
Ba Gua with Yin Yang in Center:
Ba Gua as nine spaces:
http://www.fastfengshui.com/images/fengshui_bagua2.gif
Another progressive step-wise approach is to
successively add one line to produce subsequent ratios of two:
A stack of: 2 (4 combinations); 3 (8
combinations); 4 (16 combinations); 5 (32 combinations); 6 (64 combinations).
[ In western mathematical terms, the Yin Yang
system reflects a binary, two bit, three bit and octal system; Leibniz, the inventor of the binary system,
was a few thousand years later. See the
dynasty write-up for comments on Leibniz].
The resulting octagonal trigram arrangement is called Ba Gua. There are two orientations of the 8 trigrams:
Heaven at the top (early, pre-Heaven)
and Fire at the top (late, post-Heaven); They can be thought of as innate
energies vs acquired energies. The early
heaven configuration reveals polar opposites in axle positions like a wheel
representing stillness prior to movement.
The late heaven configuration reveals a progressive pattern, clockwise,
representing growth or development.
The powerfulness of the Ba Gua is self-expressed in the two lines:
六爻之動, liu4 yao2 zhi1 dong4: (six
line’s--hexagram--movement); movements understood as the interactive forces of
Yin Yang
三极之道也 san1 ji2 zhi1 dao4 ye3: (three
entities--man/earth/heaven--way also); three entities understood as the
universe
“The [six lined] hexagram’s
movements are the way of the universe”
A proper understanding and ‘reading’ of the two diagrams is said to
maintain harmony, restore health and divine the future. These diagrams were also used in combination
with internal martial arts (Tai Ji, Qi Gong), Feng Shui, and some TCM
applications.
The YJ is
usually divined by one of two methods:
1)
Metal
(coin)
2)
Wood
(yarrow sticks, 50 was tradition).
Explanation
of each Method:
http://www.avellunau.com/Taoism/iching.htm
Statistical Comparison of the two methods:
http://www.tryskelion.com/ichstick.htm
Pre- Yi Jing influences to Ba Gua arrangements
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ich/img/01500.jpg
Lo Scrolls: (An ancient 3x3
Sudoku, every direction adds to 15)
4 9 2
3 5 7
8 1 6
http://www.sacred-texts.com/ich/img/01800.jpg
Ba Gua (Eight symbols-Trigram)
Early and Late Heaven (Ba Gua arrangements)
http://qi-journal.com/PhilosophyArticles/Photos/IChingSequences.gif
Ba Gua with Tai Ji in the center:
http://www.egreenway.com/taichichuan/images/yyesb.gif
Here are the twelve "sovereign hexagrams" representing the rise and ascent of
Yin and Yang. This movement sometimes referred to as "ebb and flow"
is apparent if the hexagrams are shown in the following way:
http://www.fengshui-magazine.com/Image23.gif
Yi Jing (I Ching, The Book of Change)
Huang Di Nei Jing (HDNJ) – The Yellow Emperor’s Classic of
Medicine
The Yellow Emperor, Huang Di, (one of five pre-dynasty
emperors) has been credited with the invention of the principles of Traditional
Chinese Medicine (TCM). Such practices
are believed to be as much as 5,000 years old. The earliest work on Chinese medical
theory dates back to around 2300 BC.
The HDNJ takes the theory of Yin Yang as it’s theoretical basis.
This
Taoist work provides a holistic picture of human life in relation to geography
or climate. As well, by understanding
the universal forces of nature, Yin Yang, and Qi, man can stay in balance (or
return to balance) with nature and himself.
Thus, it was considered a natural way to health; a life lived in harmony
with the laws of nature and heaven.
The HDNJ
states that there are 12 channels (rivers) and 8 vessels (reservoirs) within
the human body through which Qi circulates. Qi regulation can be achieved by
acupuncture, herbs, martial arts, massage, exercise, self-healing, and
religious enlightenment. If the
reservoirs are full, then the rivers are strong and Qi is regulated
efficiently; When there is stagnation in
any of the rivers, the flow of Qi will be abnormal and illness can occur.
Illness
results from Qi level being too positive (Excessive, Yang) or too negative
(deficient, Yin). When the weather is
dry the Qi in the lungs will tend to be more positive than when it is
moist. When you are angry, the Qi flow
in your liver channel will be abnormal.
Between 11am and 1 pm the Qi flow in the heart channel is the
strongest. When you experience sudden
shock the Qi flow in the bladder becomes deficient.
The human
body is comprised of ‘three treasures’; an imbalance in any one can affect
another:
1)
Shen
– spirit and mind (神)
2)
Qi
– internal energy (气 )
3)
Jing
essence-of-life (精)
Despite
the ancient origin of the work, it already describes a decline in the proper
maintenance of one’s health:
“In the past, people practiced the
Tao, the way of life. They understood the principle of balance, of Yin Yang, as
represented by the transformation of the energies of the unverse. Thus, they
formulated practices as Dao-in, an exercise combining stretching, massaging,
and breathing to promote energy flow, and meditation to help maintain and
harmonize themselves with the universe. They ate a balanced diet at regular
times, arose and retired at regular hours, avoided overstressing their bodies
and mind, and refrained from overindulgence of all kinds. They maintained
well-being of body and mind; thus, it is not surprising that they lived over
one hundred years.
These days, people have changed
their way of life. They drink wine as though it were water, indulge excessively
in destructive activities, drain their jing—the body’s essence that is stored
in the kidneys—and deplete their Qi. SO
it is not surprising that they look old at fifty and die soon after”.
Some examples
of the relationship of emotions to organs:
“Excessive anger damages the liver,
excessive joy damages the heart, excessive pensiveness damages the spleen,
excessive sorrow damages the lungs, and excessive fear damages the kidneys.”
Also
examples of the relationship of emotions to Qi:
“excessive anger causes Qi to rise,
excessive joy causes Qi to retard, excessive sorrow cause Qi to diminish,
excessive fear cause Qi to fall, excessive shock cause Qi to scatter, and
excessive pensiveness causes Qi to stagnate.”
Examples
of excess heat in the organs:
“When there is heat in the kidneys,
the bone and marrow can weaken; When there is heat in the lungs, the face
becomes pail and hair can fall off; When there is heat in the liver, the face becomes
greenish-blue and the nails become dry; When there is heat in the spleen, the
face is yellow and muscles twitch.”
Jing / Essence:
The
jing/essence is associated with kidney essence and the basis for the physical
body, carrier of our heritage: DNA, semen in the man and menstrual blood in the
woman. The Kidney is thought to store
and control jing, thus it is consumed in everyday life but cannot be
renewed. As well, overindulgence
(thinking, eating, emotions, work, sex, etc) depletes the jing/essence.
Thus, it
is believed to be of paramount importance to guard against any jing
depletion. Since semen is believed to be
stored jing, sexual activity (depletion) was felt best kept to a minimum and
under the correct conditions: not recommended to have sex at night or when drinking
alcohol.
Since the sense organs are pathways to the outer world, they should be
closely guarded to prevent any loss in the vital force, to keep organs
nourished in proper proportion and to ensure longevity.
The
exhaustive coverage of the HDNJ is beyond easy summary; As well, its detailed
explanations are beyond easy implementation.
Yet compared to the divination of the YJ and the philosophy of the DDJ,
the underlying principles of Chinese medicine are presented as the most practical
advice of the three. It is the ancient
‘way’ to a long and happy life; a life in harmony with the universe.
Classic Medical Texts:
http://www.aaaom.org/CHINESE%20MED%20CLASSICS.htm
LAO ZI’s
Dao De Jing
(道德经 - way - power/virtue - book ); Tao Te Ching (second most translated book behind the
bible).
This work was originally referred to as simply
Laozi.
Discoveries
of the written text in 1973 on silk rolls and in 1993 on bamboo slips (intact
since 300 B.C., the "Guodian Laozi," the earliest version of the Dao
De Jing) have resulted in a better understanding of this great work. The
famous opening lines below were actually not in Guodian version), and has led
to the confirmation that the Dao De Jing has been edited and added to over a
period of time:
OPENING LINES:
1- 道可道, dao4 ke3 dao4
2- 非常道。 Fei1 chang2
dao4
3- 名可名， ming2 ke3 ming2
4- 非常名。 Fei1
chang2 ming2
5- 無名天地之始, wu2 ming2 tian1 di4 zhi1
shi3
6- 有名萬物之母。 You3 ming2 wan4 wu4 zhi1 mu3
7- 故常無欲, gu4 chang2 wu2 yu4
8- 以觀其眇。 Yi3 guan1 qi2 miao3
9- 常有欲, chang2 you3 yu4
10-
以觀其徼。 Yi3 guan1 qu2 jiao3
11-
此兩者同出, ci3 liang3 zhe3 tong2 chu1
12- 而異名. Er4 yi4 ming2
13- 同謂之玄 tong2 wei4 zhi1 xuan2
14- 玄之又玄 xuan2 zhi1 you4 xuan2
15- 眾妙之門 zhong4 miao4 zhi1 men4
The opening of the
book reveals two realities ([1] [2] below): The ultimate one called Dao (a
state of non-being, non-existence, or universal force) and another reality of
human life and activity (a state of being, existence, or physical matter; a
state of naming things).
1- Dao as an expressed dao,
2- Is not a constant Dao;
3- Name as a named name,
4- Is not a constant Name.
5- Non- of named is the origin of heaven and earth [1]
6- Named is the mother of the myriad things.
[2]
7- The constant non- of desire for things
8- Observes it’s source;
9- The constant desire for things
10- Observes it’s boundary.
11- These two emerge as the same
12- But differ in name.
13- Together, they
are called mysterious
14- Mysterious and
more mysterious
15- The gate to all
mystery
The opening can be understood as follows, following
the 12 lines above:
1- Dao thus named as a ‘dao’ becomes necessary for
explanatory reasons (capital Dao is the inexpressible eternal non- of named, no
explanation needed ‘way’; lower case dao is the convention of giving it a name
and an explanation.).
2- Thus named, it does not reflect the fundamental
principle that Dao is eternal (constant) (非常 – not
constant, not eternal; a subjective, changing state based on a name).
3- A Name thus named as ‘name’ is likewise necessary
when speaking of things.
4- Thus named, it does not reflect the fundamental
principle that names are likewise a subjective representation of an non- of
named. It is simply an explanatory convention.
Since names or language are not constant, the dao cannot be constant.
5- In the beginning of heaven and earth was no names
(non-being, non-existence), just ISness or NOWness. This ISness or NOWness is
constant, eternal change from one moment to the next.
6- Thus named (being, existence), it is the mother
of all things to name things; this is to make things stop in time (antithetical
to change).
7- The eternal, constant [principle of Dao] is a
lack of desire [for things]
8- All things can be seen for their essence (just as
if viewed for the first time)
9- Having a constant desire [for things]
10- All things are seen as limited within a boundary
[of space-time].
11- These two things arise from the same source [or
return to the same origin]
12- but differ in their name (function and effect)
13- Their ONEness speaks of a profound subtlety
14- A subtlety which leads to greater mystery
15- It is the gate of all mysteries
One passage relates the entire process in the above
12 lines in the following manner:
“Reaching the supreme emptiness, keeping to the firm vacuity, ten
thousand things start to emerge, and exist in a way so as to return. Heaven’s way is circular, each thing returns
to it’s roots”.
The contrast of the supreme emptiness and the ten
thousand emerging things both exist on one level, yet by returning to one’s
root makes them one and the same on another level.
Historical Context:
The Guodian Laozi discovered in 1993 does not
contain the famous opening lines and begs the question why was this opening
added later?
It’s clear that the ‘
- The unity of ‘pairings’ between the ‘wu’ non- of
things and ‘you’ things itself, differing only in name. (non- of named and the
named; non- of desires and desires. The
term ‘Pairings’ is preferred over dualism for hopefully obvious reasons). Dao itself is undifferentiated.
- The constant metaphysical principle, guide, or
authority which existed prior to Heaven and Earth. (thus, even heaven has an
authority or standard which is Dao. Up till this point seen as man’s moral
authority of well-being—Mandate of Heaven, and model, standard, or law—fa3. See
DDJ25, The fa3 of Dao is natural law, self-so--zi ran). Dao itself does not change.
For Confucius, a well ordered society was paramount
and the best order was one clearly defined with names, which he called the
‘Rectification of Names’. A name
correctly rectified guides peoples actions.
Heaven (Tian) was the authority for society (the
impersonal entity—Tian--was replacing the Zhou’s more personal ‘shang
di’). For Confucius, society must strive
for Heaven’s moral order to actualize social order. This human way (ren dao) sought
self-cultivation in order to develop the man of virtue (jun zi); thus, man must
be active in his pursuit of the way.
Xunzi’s focus was a rational view of humanity’s role
in the creation of an orderly society; The sages of the past had discovered a
Way which was to be transmitted by the teachers of the present.
Mozi sought social and political order through
utilitarian means (ie: justified through standards/models/laws—fa3). This fa3 needed to be impartial and
objective, and he found this fa3 as originating in Heaven (Tian). Mozi sought to distinguish between the
concepts of ‘same’ or ‘different’ (tong yi) and ‘this’ or ‘not’ (shi/fei) which
required a standard by which to make these judgments. For Mozi, fa3 is akin to
a guiding standard and a practical form of a constant dao, not historical (Shen
Dao) nor conventional (Confucius).
This would give rise to another school of thought,
fa3 jia1, School of Law, which held that man is best guided by rigidly enforced
laws (ie: punishments); That one doesn’t need books but only laws became their
motto and lead to the infamous Qin book burning.
The School of Names grew out of Mohism and was
concerned with differentiating between ‘names’ and ‘things’; between ‘same’ and
‘different’; between ‘this’ and ‘not this’;
Correct names produces order; Incorrect ones produce disorder.
The story of the frontier guard stopping a passing
rider saying, “Horses are not allowed to pass”.
The
In the Zhuangzi, we read Shen Dao had said, “abandon
knowledge, discard self” and was indifferent to ‘shi/fei’ debates. He sought to dismantle Tian as authority and
spoke of a higher authority, Great Dao (authority should come from
circumstances not ethics nor laws), but without labeling it as a ‘correct’ way
since that be appealing to ‘shi’; Thus, the Great Dao just is. Yet, the paradox remains that he is invoking
a Dao which comes from a rational knowledge of history, which he said to
abandon (since these types of dao’s cannot truly guide).
For the Daoist, to argue about dao’s is to argue
language, or words; one can use words about order and standards, but this is
ultimately subjective; However concrete it may appear to the presenter, it is
too subject to change as it is man’s way.
A human centered way was easily described in words and man’s efforts were
to advance it. Those who walk to a
described and prescribed way, or those that did not recognize any single
authoritative way, are both just walking to their own [man made] way.
In such a period, the DDJ was written and expanded
upon. The opening lines seek to show
that which is unnamable (the eternal Dao, non-being, non-existence) and that
which is namable (things, being, existence).
The Daoist sought to show Dao as the source of all ‘things’; the world
of things is a world of names. Although there may be an unnamable and a
namable, they are one and the same.
The DDJ is both a social and political commentary
wrapped in philosophical Dao, expounding the important concepts discussed in
this section. Some links are provided for online copies.
Dao De Jing (Tao Te Ching, The Way and the
Power, in Chinese and English with mouse over help)
http://afpc.asso.fr/wengu/wg/wengu.php?l=Daodejing&no=1
http://www.yellowbridge.com/onlinelit/daodejing.html
