This study aims to determine the role of Yin-Yang and Wuxing in the time of ancient Chinese dynastic cycles and to investigate the origin and development process of concept and character for Yin-Yang and Wuxing. Following the ancient history of China...
This study aims to determine the role of Yin-Yang and Wuxing in the time of ancient Chinese dynastic cycles and to investigate the origin and development process of concept and character for Yin-Yang and Wuxing. Following the ancient history of China, the Warring States period was an inflection point and had a strong influence over character changes of Yin-Yang and Wuxing. Until the Spring and Autumn period, Yin-Yang only had been concerned with the temperature or the sunlight and Wuxing had been five materials or five rules. Facing dynastic cycle at hand was a chance to expand and develop the actual concept of Yin-Yang and Wuxing toward the abstract and philosophical one.
Since terrible human sacrifice was prevalent during the Shang dynasty, King Wen of Zhou(Ji Chang: 姬昌) explored ‘I Ching’ which was a divination text called ‘the Changes of Zhou’ in the jail and found out the mandate of Heaven could be changed and could favor a new ruler. What he found was the fact that two codes(⚊, ⚋) of ‘I Ching’ can be reversed and switched. Those findings made him overcome the fear against Shangdi(上帝, Lord Above) and decided the conquest of Shang. His second son King Wu of Zhou(Ji Fa: 姬發) completed the war and honored him as the founder of the Zhou dynasty. King Wen of Zhou’s discovery became the groundwork of the Yin-Yang philosophy.
Zou Yan(鄒衍) was a philosopher hailed from the coastal state of Qi(齊) during the late Warring States period. Many rulers claimed the Mandate of Heaven to justify their conquest of other states and spread their influence. ‘The rise and fall of the Five Virtues(五德終始說)’ which Zou Yan invented was a theory to imply a change of Heaven’s favor for one dynasty and to suggest evidence of a change of the ruler. By the cycle of the five virtues( in a rock-paper-scissors fashion, earth→wood→metal→fire→water→earth), each virtue conquers or overcomes the previous one, providing some justification for the transition of dynasties, especially a dynastic revolution.
The key points of ‘the rise and fall of Five Virtues’theory were ‘conquest of five virtues(五德 相勝)’and ‘transference of five virtues(五德轉移)’. Based on those unique ideas, ‘overcoming interaction between the wuxing’ was created first in the late Warring States period, and then later ‘generating interaction’ was designed in the early Han dynasty. As Emperor Wu of Han(漢武帝) established an autocratic and centralized state, the theory for‘the rise and fall of Five Virtues’was not required anymore and had to be discarded. This explains how the Wuxing theory got furnished with organic relationship between the wuxing with ceaseless vigorous movement.
This thesis verified why wuxing should be a fivefold conceptual scheme, not four or not seven, and suggested what the order of wuxing implied including ‘earth, wood, metal, fire, water’, ‘water, fire, wood, metal, earth’, ‘water, fire, metal, wood, earth’, ‘wood, fire, earth, metal, water’, ‘water, wood, fire, earth, metal, water’ and ‘metal, wood, water, fire, earth’ in the Chinese classics. This paper also discussed the terms of ‘five virtues(wude, 五德)’ and ‘wuxing(五行)’when and why they were chosen to use and write down.
Yin-Yang and Wuxing have influenced oriental thinking and lifestyle for a long time. Both theories aim to cast about for life and phenomena and to resolve matters seeking harmony and balance.