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Symbolic Expressions of Yin-Yang Philosophy
- Hong Kong University Press, HKU
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Symbolic Expressions of Yin-Yang Philosophy Schuyler Cammann The peoples of nearly every tribe and nation have used symbols to eχpress their deepest and most abstruse, philosophic or religious ideas, because symbols can more immediately convey these, on many levels. The people of Old China were no exception. When we examine their pictorial motifs - which are seldom 'mere decoration' - we find that these formed units in a 'language of symbols,' which functioned much like individual words in writing. If we can manage to decipher these and read their meanings with some degree of certainty, they can help to throw a clearer light on ideas and concepts that seem obscure in the old books, or perhaps were scarcely mentioned in the written texts because everyone took them for granted. When we turn to the Old Chinese symbols that expressed YinYang 陰陽 ideas, or were influenced by them, the results are especially fruitfu1.1 The commonest and most popular of the Yin-Yang symbols in China was simply a circle bisected by an S-shaped line to set off two commalike figures in contrasting colours. When this is printed, the Yin side is shown in black, because Yin is associated with darkness or shadow; while the unprinted white stands for Yang, because Yang is associated with Many current books and articles on Chinese symbolism are worthless. A study of Chinese symbols should only be undertaken after long experience with the language and culture of China, taking care to avoid subjective interpretations, or those based on non-Chinese reasoning. An example of how it should not be done is Philip Rawson and Laszlo Legeza, Tao: The Eastern Philosophy of Time and Change (Avon: New York, 1973). The captions for the pictures in this currently popular book reflect an obsession with blatantly seχual interpretation of Yin-Yang symbolism, many of which are totally unwarranted. However, if one disregards the nonsense in most of the captions, the illustrations themselves are often worth citation. 101 Schuyler Cammann bright, clear light. If this motif is shown in colour, however, Yang,的 the male principle, is shown in red, the colour of fire, symbolizing lively activity; while Yin, as the female principle, is again shown in black, which this time symbolizes a neutral passivity. The latter did not mean a dull inactivity, but rather a quiet form of 'restful creativity,' such as was expressed in the Taoist concept of wu 叩ei 無早已. Plate 1 shows this symbol in the hands of Fu Hsi 伏義 , a legendary culture-hero of Ancient China, who is supposed to have introduced it. This symbol formed of the two contrasting comma-shaped elements contained in a circle is commonly known as the Tai-chi t'u 太極 圖 Occasionally the commas were replaced by the figures of two fish, in contrasting colours. Sometimes merely shown parallel, they more often interlocked to form a circular design.3 Most of the later Tai-chi symbols show a circular dot of Yang colour in the Yin comma, and a similar dot of Yin colour in the Yang comma. People often assume that these are merely survivals of the prominent eyes in the combined fish; Plate 1 The legendary Chinese ruler Fu Hsi holding the Tai-chi t'u. Detail from a Taoist painting of the Ming dynasty, in the Kulturen Museum , Lund, Sweden. 2 While traveling through Yünnan in the 1930's, 1 frequently saw this T'ai-chi device (surrounded by the Eight Trigrams) painted at the center of the principal roof-beam in farmhouses, to be seem from below, to establish a spiritual axis for the entire dwelling. In the Likiang area of Yünnan, the triangle at the side of the wooden house formed by the two sloping roofs was often relieved by a wooden pendant. Sometimes this wasveη, simple, merely decorated with the familiar Yin-Yang symbol, but fairly often the lower end was carved to present two parallel fish, painted white and black, respectively. 102 [3.237.178.126] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 02:46 GMT) Symbolic Expressions of Yin-YIαng Philosophy but their presence is far more significant. These contrasting dots reflect the Old Chinese idea that, while the idea of difference between the seχes is implicit in Yin-Yang thinking, the distinction was not absolute. Men and male animals were of course basically imbued with Yang, while women and female creatures were fundamentally Yin; but only the sun and the moon - or Sky (t'íen 天 )and Earth (tí 地) - represented...