THE YI-JING AND YIN-YANG WAY OF THINKING

When one reads the history of Chinese philosophy, inevitably one will ask when and how Chinese philosophy originated. The answer is that Chinese philosophy as deep thinking on the nature of the world and the nature of human self can be said to have begun with the formation of the text of Yi-Jing (易經 The Book of Change) at the beginning of the Zhou dynasty in the early twelfth century BCE.1 Hence the Yi-Jing was first known as the Zhou-Yi (周), which suggests the method by which changes were known in the Zhou time. The name also suggests that it deals with all changes (易yi) in the world, thus covering both natural changes and changes introduced by human action. Prior to the Zhou-Yi it is believed that there was Yin-Yi in the Yin period (ca 1600 BCE) and Xia-Yi in the Xia period (ca 2000 BCE). To say that the beginning of the formation of the Zhou-Yi is the beginning of Chinese philosophy is an important proposition in light of the contemporary findings on matters related to the history of the text known as the Zhou-Yi, and also in light of the influence of the Zhou-Yi on the development of Chinese philosophy. It is through the disclosure of philosophical insights embodied in the texts of the Zhou-Yi that the book was transformed from a text of divination into a text of philosophical wisdom, which can be variously described as the philosophy of the yi or the onto-cosmology of yi or the ben-ti (本體) -ontology of the yi (易的本體有論).2 This transformation is essential for understanding how the Zhou-Yi could be regarded as the forming of a system of ideas or views about the world and ourselves as human beings. We need to first explain how the Zhou-Yi can be said to contain philosophical insights in the sense of presupposition and pre-understanding. In order to understand the Yi-Jing as essentially a book of philosophical wisdom which was developed and used as a book of divination we need to know what it concerns and how it is to be understood as a book of primordial philosophy. In simple terms, this text concerns the genesis of the onto-cosmological world (nature) in termsof the movement and rest of yin and yang forces at the most basic level. The idea is that the world is composed of activities of yin and yang forces which systematically form world-situations in which we find ourselves. This understanding has the potentiality for explaining all things in their formation and transformation. It is also congenial with regard to incorporating human beings as part and parcel of the ontocosmological process of reality-realization. This has the benign consequence to the effect human being could actively change the world. This understanding also forms the core of thinking in the formation of the image-forms (trigrams/hexagrams guas 卦) and yaos (爻 six lines which structure each gua) in the Yi-Jing text. One may indeed regard the guas as symbols for situation-making configuration of living forces (vis viva) of change (namely, the qi 氣) and the yaos as symbols of the living forces of yin (陰) and yang (陽) natures.3 Normally a broken line signifies the living force of yin and a solid line signifies the living force of yang. As we shall see, the capacity to change naturally causes us to regard our yin and yang experiences of nature as revealing the creative forces of yin and yang in natural reality. At the same time, the terms yin and yang still retain their phenomenological meanings in terms of our experiences of light and dark, motion and rest, hardness and softness. Not only can yin-yang be regarded as living forces of nature, they can be also treated as qualities of things that may be experienced and described also as a matter of yin and yang forces, namely as creative forces of the qi. It is interesting to note that the original texts of the Zhou-Yi did not mention qi, and it is not until the writing of the Yi-Zhuan (易傳) commentaries of the Yi text that the term qi was used. But this is not to say that experiences and understanding of qi as a living force may not begin with the observation and experiences of the yin-yang forces in process of change in reality (nature). Even though the original Yi text rarely mentioned yin and yang, we must assume that they are taken for granted insofar as our experiences of nature and ourselves are concerned. Yet a distinction between experience of yin and experience of yang has to be made. This no doubt gives rise to the statement in the Xi-Ci (繫辭): 'Alternation of the yin and yang (yi-yin-yi-yang-zhi-wei-dao 一陰一陽之謂道) is called the dao (道).'4 Hence we normally assume that we know what the yin-yang model of thinking stands for. But in actuality we may not really know what yin and yang are or how these two words are used in the Yi text. In asserting that 'the alternation of one yin and one yang is to be called the dao', we must notice the use of the term 'zhi-wei' (之謂 'is to be called') as distinct from the term 'wei-zhi' (謂之 'is called'). The former indicates a real definition which consists in an insight into the nature of things which leads to the definition of a thing in light of that insight whereas the latter indicates a conventional definition which consists in identifying a use of descriptive language by convention. In light of this distinction one can see that what is referred to as 'yi-yinyi-yang-zhi-wei-dao' is a reflection of insight into the reality of change by the author of the Xi-Ci. Along the same line we may also identify the similarly insightful real definitions in various sections of the Xi-Ci. We have the following assertions:To be abundant is to be called great deed; to renew oneself is to be calledsagely virtue. To be creative of creativity is called the change. To form an image is to be called Power (乾). To follow is to be called Receptance (坤). To explore into the numbers is to know the future and is to be called divination. To comprehend changes is to be called an event. In the exchanges of yin and yang there is unpredictability and this is to be called the divine.' (Xi-CiShang 5)To contrast, we see how the author of the Xi-Ci illustrates the use of wei-zhi: 'The benevolent man (仁者) sees it and calls it benevolence, the wise man (智者) sees it and calls it wisdom' (Xi-Ci-Shang 5).