Translator: 子玖 Email：jingleicai@qq.com
I Ching, the oldest classics in Chinese ethnic,
is the origin of Chinese philosophy.
Whether the Tao in Taoism,
or the Tao in Confucian tradition,
they all come from
the basic value of I Ching
which is: one Yin and one Yang is called Tao (the way this universe works)
So, how are Yin and Yang generated?
What's the relationship between them?
How does the idea of Yin and Yang
influence Chinese ethnic?
Professor Zeng Shiqiang from NTNU
will lead us to the wisdom of I Ching
Episode 01: The Tao of Yin & Yang
We have only one World.
We all have heard this sentence many times,
so many times.
But, what on earth does this sentence mean?
We all know about the Babylon culture,
the Greek culture.
They seems to be different, but close.
They seems to be similar, but the differences are right there.
So, is it different or similar?
same or not the same?
As you can see, all the western civilizations
initiated from mythology.
You guys must have heard a lot of them.
Babylon has its own mythology;
Greece has its own mythology;
of course, China also has its own mythology.
However, are the mythologies able to meet human's needs?
Can you just live with the mythologies?
I don't think so.
People are always dubious of mythology.
It's always hard to understand the mythology.
Therefore,the mythology is unable
to satisfy people's thirst for knowledge.
That is why philosophy showed up.
Every ethnic has its own philosophy.
And all the philosophies were drawn from mythologies.
Mythology has only one purpose,
which is resolving the questions of life and universe.
Also, philosophy has only one purpose as well,
which is resolving the questions of life and universe.
But, we always think the philosophy
is far-reaching and hard to understand.
It seems that they are all placed in an Ivory Tower.
From the very ancient time,
Chinese philosophers
never put themselves in an Ivory Tower.
For example, Confucius
lived so close to the common people,
and Lao Zi (founder of Taoism)
are so popular among folks.
Why is that?
Because we Chinese people never differentiate,
we only combine.
We combine the ideal and reality together.
We pull the high down, and the low up.
So, slowly, mythology becomes philosophy,
and then, the philosophy
becomes our wisdom.
What is our wisdom?
It is a copy of <I Ching>.
Our cognition towards <I Ching> should be:
totally realizing that
<I Ching> is not a book teaching us
about knowledge.
It's NOT.
If <I Ching> is
a book about knowledge,
it would be thrown away a long time ago.
Because for such a long time,
everything has changed,
and I Ching would be no longer useful.
What I Ching brings us is WISDOM.
I Ching tells us that everything comes from our mind.
We don't simulate.
We image.
Everything comes from our imagination.
Some people will say: it's mythology.
Then I have a question for you:
Which ethnic didn't draw their knowledge from their mythology?
Besides mythology, at that time, there is no other ways
to directly achieve the thing we call science today.
It was just impossible.
The beginning of imagination is fuzzy;
is unsharp.
After that, things start to be clear in a certain way.
Did we have watches before?
No.
At the very beginning, watch is just an imagination turning inside someone's mind.
After that, watches were managed to be produced.
Did we have microphone before?
No.
It's only because there's someone keeping imagining it,
that microphone came out after the imaginations.
Everything comes from our imagination.
I think this is the highest answer
I Ching offers.
I Ching tells us that
Everything comes from our imagination.
Actually,it is imagination that
makes numerous creations available
in this world we are living in now.
It is imagination that creates so many kinds of
ideologies and thinking styles.
Then, I Ching's idea
came from where, or whom?
It came from Fuxi.
Then you may admire Fuxi a lot.
What if I can achieve those ideas as well?
That would be awesome, right?
Of course you can !
Yeah,you heard me right. It's just about one method.
That is : diminishing your desires.
By doing this, you can think in a positive way.
We call what comes to our mind "Tianji" (nature's mystery)
Chinese people named this Tianji.
Those who desires too much only deserve shallow Tianji.
Constantly hoping to earn money in stock market;
wondering how to make money out of real estate;
money, money, and always money...
People who do those things are totally blind for the Tianji.
Those who desire little deserve massive Tianji.
It all depends on yourself.
What Fuxi was trying to figure out is the most important,
and the highest secret of the universe.
Which is : where did all things on earth come from?
Fuxi saw the sun rising from the East,
then keeping moving...
and going down to the West.
Then ,Fuxi got it.
There is a kind of power in the World
which pulls the sun up from the East,
and then draws it down to the West.
This very power
influences all things on earth.
It seems like that is the origin of the universe.
If Fuxi's idea just stopped there,
we would think that
this guy was simulating.
Because it's unpractical.
Why do we conclude that it's unpractical?
Simple enough.
A sun rose one day;
then another sun rose next day...
How could there be so many suns?
A sun everyday,
365 suns every year, then.
Come on...
Even if there are so many suns,
is that possible that the East has
such a warehouse of suns?
And there is also one in the West
to maintain the movement theory?
So, Fuxi
denied himself.
I think that
this influenced Chinese people a lot.
Men should introspect from time to time.
Now, we have already known that
Fuxi's initial idea was not the fact.
Because the sun is always out there,
only the Earth is spinning.
That is why sometimes we can see the sun,
and sometimes we cannot.
However,
would it influence our way of thinking?
No.
Look, Fuxi
at least told us that
where there is a visible part, there is a invisible part.
where there is a power pulling up,
there is a power drawing down.
Then the idea that
"there are 2 interactive forces"
came through Fuxi's mind.
One positive one negative; one above one below.
What do this 2 things form?
They form the 2 important elements
in Taichi.(Yin & Yang)
Therefore, Fuxi was eager to express
his idea to the public.
Unfortunately, there was no written language at that time.
So, he expressed this power
by drawing a straight line.
I think that
it was an extraordinary achievement,
since there was no written language available,
and it was hard to express by words.
Fuxi drew a straight-forward graph,
a simplest
graph.
Just as a reminder, there was even no concept of graph at that time.
Fuxi created it.
He might even don't have a pen
for his graph, or the line.
He might just
found a piece of branch,
and use it to represent the power,
the force.
So we call it: Separate heaven from earth by this one line.
Now, having talked so much so far,
we're clear that:
at that time, Fuxi
used his eyes to observe the universe,
and then, depending on his imagination,
he made the system for us.
The very origin of the system is this one line.
This line is called "Taichi" (or Taiji).
I think that everything
starts right there.
Fuxi thought that: as there is a power,
a force,
a direction,
so there must be an opponent one.
And that forms the so-called
"moving in circles; going round and round"
Therefore, Fuxi thought that:
as there is a Yin, there must be a Yang;
as there is a Yang, there must be a Yin.
Fuxi looked up to observe heaven, and lowered his head to investigate earth.
speculating for a long time
before he finally achieved the critical line.
This line is Taichi.
Everything in the universe
comes right from Taichi.
Confucius also mentioned it in his <Ten Appendices>,
which is also called <I Biography>,
that Taichi comes after I; while two norms (Yin & Yang) come after Taichi.
It means that Taichi
covers one positive power and one negative power.
And these 2 kinds of power are Yin and Yang.(the red one is Yang)
So,What's the relationship
between Yin and Yang?
Taichi generates two norms;
the two norms are Yin and Yang.
If Fuxi stopped here
and got very satisfied,
it would be unfortunate for us.
Why?
Because it means that
the concept of Separating had already come out.
We get Yin and Yang here,
so how many do wo get?
Of course two,
separated two, right?
(Wrong..) so, Fuxi thought that
one is still the one,
but only sometimes one is still one;
and sometimes one could change to two.
It's like a piece of wood. If you don't move it,
it remains a piece of wood.
If you break it,
it becomes 2 pieces.
Therefore, Yin is Yang;
Yang is Yin.
Yin can become Yang;
while Yang can become Yin.
You should never separate Yin from Yang,
because they highly match up to each other.
Then, Fuxi becomes aware that:
ohh, finally I get it...
"there is Yang inside Yin";
"and there is Yin inside Yang".
How did he get it?
Because he found that
if he breaks the Yang branch, it will become Yin;
if he puts the Yin together, it will become Yang.
Now, if we give our kids
a piece of bamboo,
or a piece of wood,
kids can easily break them down,
and cry...
What do you do?
You repair it with glue.
Things like that now are
so normal for us.
But at the time when Fuxi was living,
it took a very active imagination.
See, this is one line,
it can be called Taichi; it also can be called Yang.
That's why Chinese characters have different pronunciations
and different meanings
in different situations.
That's why.
Tell me what does this line mean?
It means Taichi;
but when we put it
beside the Yin,
its meaning turns into Yang.
Same line,
Different position,
Different meaning.
It's common in Chinese characters.
Did you notice that
****An example of Chinese characters' various meanings****
These conceptions and phenomenons
all come from I Ching.
You feel pleasant about ONE.
Why?
Because everybody is getting together,just like ONE;
meanwhile, ONE seems really strong and tough.
It's sort like
the feeling of being united in ONE concerted effort.
TWO, it implies separating.
Then, Fuxi said
if Yang is Yang, and Yin is Yin,
is it correct?
What if the Yang rises
and goes towards a direction;
and the Yin rises and goes towards another direction?
If Yin and Yang don't cooperate,
don't coordinate,
and don't match up with each other,
would this universe work in such an order?
See, we just get a new conception,
which is: universe seems chaotic,
but it's actually in a perfect order.
Yes, perfect.
This is called: perfect orders in chaos.
You name it,
everything in this World is chaotic,
but actually they are all following certain orders.
Perfect orders in chaos.
This conception deserves
our serious thoughts.
Lao Zi said: the Tao way follows nature.
What does it mean?
It doesn't mean the Tao way imitates nature.
It's not like that,
because Tao itself is nature.
So, the word "follow" should be understood as "equal" here.
Tao equals nature.
However, when Chinese people say "equal",
we also mean "not equal".
I think this is the most miraculous part.
We, Chinese people,
should become more and more aware of our culture,
because besides nature,
there is a little bit something else inside Tao.
We use the word "moral principles"(伦理) to explain it.
The sentence in the I Ching
which we repeat a lot
is: Helped by heaven and yourself,
it's auspicious.
It means that if you try to understand how the nature works,
and try to follow it,
you'll be blessed.
Trouble will not find you.
Thus, under such a situation,
we pay more attention on human behaviors,
on ourselves.
Have I understood nature's principles?
That's the question we ask ourselves.
In simple words, I Ching transfers nature's principles into moral principles in today's society.
So, where did moral principles come from?
Answer is : they came from the nature.
Nature is in such a perfect order,
by whose management?
If Fuxi said nature is managed by God,
then what we have today would be religions.
But he didn't say that.
He said it is the interaction between Yin and Yang;
it is the breeding of nature;
and there is no special ruler.
no.
Today, through modern physics,
we have had a general idea
that I Ching actually is quite close to truth.
For example, I Ching mentioned that there are 2 different forces
influencing on each other like that.
And universe is based on it
to keep running.
I Ching believes that
Yin & Yang are generated by Taichi.
Besides that, there is a Yin part inside Yang,
and vise versa.
Extreme Yin will turn to Yang, and vise versa.
They are interactive, united,
and also un-separate-able.
This is: one Yin and one Yang is called Tao (the way this universe works)
So, by what kind of ways
Chinese people are influenced
by the conception of Yin Yang?
If you have to describe all the knowledge in this world
in just one sentence
and in a very clear way,
do you think it's possible to be done?
I guess most of you are shaking your heads...
"Come on, how could it be that simple?"
While, in fact it is possible that
just one simple sentence can describe all the knowledge in this world clearly.
And the sentence would be the one in <I Ching>:
One Yin and one Yang form the Tao (the way this universe works)
Today, biologists
have made it very clear that
it is specy diversity
that keeps this world alive.
So many elements
causing so many interactions,
that's the reason why this world keeps alive.
Once species are unified,
and finally there's no other species
but human beings,
hunman beings will also die out.
In conclusion:
without contradictory
no change will happen.
And no change means nothing but death.
See, one Yin and one Yang form the Tao.
Make sure you always have this conception in your mind.
The saying "One Yin and one Yang form the Tao"
doesn't mean that Tao is simply
combined by a Yin and a Yang.
No, it doesn't mean that.
Its correct meaning is the way nature changes itself.
Have you noticed that
everything in this world
all come from nature's energy and breed.
And behind this colorful world, there's one basic principle.
This principle does not change forever.
Because if it changes,
varieties will change every single second.
And there would be no order in our society;
and no confidence in the nature.
"One Yin and one Yang form the Tao"
tells us that
nature's changes are the way (or called Tao) Yin & Yang interacts.
Who added "Yin & Yang" into this sentence?
Confucius did.
He said: I (Yi, not 'me') contains Taichi, and Taichi generates two norms.
The 2 norms he mentioned are Yin and Yang.
Let me make myself clear
since I'm talking about one Yin and one Yang.
Sometimes, Chinese people mean "2" when they say "1",
and they may mean "1" when they say"2".
Confucius told us that inside the "1",
there might be different parts.
But how many parts?
Actually, they are just
front & reverse; above & below; high & low; little & heavy...
just relative pairs.
When talking about relativity,
some people say that there's no absolute thing.
They're wrong.
See, we say that "in this world,
everything is absolute.
There's absolutely no relativity."
Did you notice that
this sentence itself is a absolute one,
very absolute one.
How could such absolute things exist?
So, from this, we learned that
everything has a exception.
This is quite an important conception
in <I Ching>.
Taichi is the general character we all share.
Human is always inside Taichi, no matter how huge and great he is,
or how small and ordinary he is.
Everyone is inside his or her Taichi.
Even every Chinese word
is inside Taichi.
It is called: One word, one Taichi.
However, it changes.
Inside Taichi is Yin & Yang.
For example, if you look at a Chinese guy,
sometimes he is faithful;
sometimes he is not.
Sometimes he is time-keeping;
sometimes he is not.
Sometimes he is enthusiastic;
sometimes he is frustrated.
We all experience it everyday.
People's mood changes.
For example,
a man has different moods inside him.
Sometimes he feels like
everything is so light and happy,
full of sunshine and hopes.
Sometimes he feels like bad guys are everywhere,
and life really sucks.
The very same man;
the very same Taichi.
There are always the Yin part and the Yang part there.
Is a bad guy necessarily always bad?
Not always.
Bad guys do good things once in a while.
Does a good guy necessarily never do bad things?
Not always.
It's quite common that good guys do lots of bad things.
Therefore, Yin is Yang, and Yang is Yin;
Yin could turn to Yang, and vise versa.
I think that this kind of conception
really has influenced Chinese people a lot.
See, since western people are more likely
to consider Yin as Yin always,
and Yang as Yang always,
they consider it as two different and separated things.
If you ask western people :"Is Yin Yang two things,
or one thing?"
I guarantee they would say "two things".
They think it's quite simple:
Yin is Yin;
Yang is Yang.
However, Chinese people would say
that it's "one thing".
Inside a single thing, contains 2 different elements:
Yin and Yang.
Put them back together, it turns to Taichi.
Separate the Taichi,it becomes Yin & Yang.
Thus, if we consider it as "one", it's Taichi;
if we consider is a "two", it's Yin Yang.
I think this kind of conception
is quite easy to accept for us.
This "one contains two" conception
I Ching offer us,
and the western conception "two makes up one",
makes a difference between
eastern and western people's value.
So, when these two different values
are applied into real life,
what would be the differences?
"Separating 1, we get 2"
That is true.
"1 generates 2" Also true.
But we really should
pay a serious thought to the words
"separate" and "generate".
What is "separate"?
"Separate" means split, split, and split.
Western people observe this world,
and reach this conclusion:
"Ohh, I get it,. It's just one breaks up into two.
One cell breaks up into two cells;
and 2 cells break up into 4 cells;
and 4 break into 8
8 into 16
16 into 32,
and just like that,our world was built"
Yes, this opinion is quite right in some points.
Because our world actually does work like that.
However...Chinese people again,
they don't put it this way.
They think that:"One generates two; two generates three; three generates everything"
and that's it. They just stop there
Since everything has been generated, it's unnecessary to keep counting after "three".
See. 1, 2, 3.
You are no smaller than 1,2,3;
you are no bigger than 1,2,3.
Everything is 1,2,3.
Lao Zi said :"One generates two; two generates three; three generates eveything"
Let's explain it in I Ching's idea:
One is Taichi,
it's the origin of all the changes;
Two is Yin & Yang;
Three is the interaction between Yin and Yang.
Then, everything can be generated by nature.
<I Ching> is an extensive book with precise details. Nothing is uncovered.
So, by which way everything
was generated from Yin and Yang?
We get be clear that
much of Chinese thinking mode
comes from <I Ching>.
We're told by I Ching that
this world is made up by "one".
However,if the "one" is just a "one",
our world would
never experience any change.
And without change, nothing would be generated.
If the Yin and Yang
don't interact with each other,
they cannot generate nothing.
Therefore, we know that
Yang has to be with Yin;
and Yin has to follow Yang.
In this way, they would be able to generate everything.
Everything has its Yin side and Yang side.
And you can never separate the 2 sides.
Let's take a day as an example.
You get up in the morning,
and the sun has already shown up.
Will you feel hot?
No, you will not.
Because you know that the sun it self is hot,
but the heat from the sun
hasn't spread to earth totally.
So, you know that
it's hot up there, cool down here.
So we call this "little Yang" (it's like a young Yang)
When it turns to 12 clock,
it becomes hot both up and down.
We call this "pure Yang".
When the nightfall comes,
do you feel that it's still hot on earth,
but up there, it's turning cool,
because the setting sun is not very hot.
Cool up there; hot down here.
We call this "little Yin" (it's like a young Yin)
When it reaches the mid-night
it's cold both up and down.
We call this "pure Yin".
Think about it...
Let's take a year as an example.
Spring and summer are Yang;
Autumn and winter are Yin.
See, no matter where you are,
you can always apply this theory:
"Taichi generates 2 norms (Yin and Yang)
2 norms generate 4 phenomenons"
to all the changes you meet
As long as you can master this theory,
and know how to reach a dynamic balance,
you will understand I Ching and this world totally.
We really should respect Fuxi,
because his starting point was so advanced and comprehensive.
And he made his theory always applicable for us.
This is what we call "Ching" (Classic)
Why do we rank I Ching as the first Ching among so many Chings?
Because I Ching is the common origin of all other Chings.
We call it "the original Ching".
Fuxi started it with this one line,
this one line is Taichi.
Taichi contains 2 forces called Yin & Yang,
also called two norms.
And the interaction between Yin & Yang
generates the 4 phenomenons. (little Yin,little Yang, pure Yin and pure Yang)
So next,how do 4 phenomenons generate the eight trigrams?
And what do these 8 trigrams mean?
Coming soon..
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