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In China, "yin and yang" and the "Five Elements" are among the oldest and most typical of such concepts. The concept of yin and yang mainly derived from the knowledge about "phenomena" (xiang), whereas the concept of the Five Elements mainly evolved from the knowledge about "categories" (lei). However, both concepts contain vestiges of magic, which would have a profound impact on Chinese philosophy. This is exactly one of the manifestations of the continuity of Chinese culture.
The predecessor or prototype of the concept of yin and yang is the idea of opposition, which is quite common in the development of mankind's prehistoric thinking. It probably started from interest in symmetry and originated from primitive people's observation and impression of animals and plants during gathering and hunting as well as of themselves. Besides, the structure of phratric opposition in early society also played a role in the formation of this idea.
In China, the formation of the early idea of opposition has already been archaeologically proven. For instance, there was already initial awareness of "more" and "less" in the record of numbers with bones or wood; the awareness of good and poor harvest as well as that of fertility and barrenness in the discontinuation of cultivation and crop rotation; the awareness of "fast" and "slow," or efficiency, in the use of farm tools; and the concepts of "large" and "small," "more" and "less," "deep" and "shallow," and "permanent" and "temporary" in storage. Besides, the contrast between stone axes and stone wedges would give rise to the ideas of "sharp" and "blunt," and "thick" and "thin"; the making of pottery would involve knowledge about fast and slow wheels, upper and lower kiln holes, more and fewer firing cavities, and high and low temperatures; the spinning of yarn would involve knowledge about large or small, light or heavy, and fast or slow wheels as well as coarse and fine textiles; and construction would definitely involve concepts of dry or damp environment, high or low houses, deep or shallow foundations, and thick or thin and long or short components.
Early Chinese concepts of opposition are also widely reflected in pictures and patterns. For instance, there are symmetric images of fish and human faces combined with fish painted on pottery of Yangshao Culture; on painted pottery of Qujialing Culture are found S-shaped patterns (), which could be the original form of the Taichi diagram4. The same is true of bronzes, many of which are decorated with symmetric animal motifs. These, in turn, probably reflect a social structure or system, for the royal lineage of the Yin Dynasty was divided into two groups - Zhao and Mu5. Following pictures, symbols played an important role in the establishment of the idea of opposition and the concept of yin and yang. A discussion of this issue requires us to mention the symbols — and — in Book of Change. Since Book of Change was intended to be a book for divination, — and — originally represent two possibilities or results - auspiciousness and inauspiciousness. Yet they also involve the idea of opposition, as apparent from statements like "the little gone and the great come" and "there is no state of peace that is not liable to be disturbed" {Hexagram Tai), and "the great gone and the little come" and "distresses comes before joy" {Hexagram Pi). In particular, the symbols — and — already have quite obvious implications of yin and yang. Hegel said, "Phenomenal manifestations of objects always precede concepts in the human consciousness."6 Both pictures and symbols are phenomenal manifestations, but they paved the way to concepts. Moreover, symbols are better than pictures because they are more abstract and yet more concrete, with more general and more accurate references, and because they can be used in combination with concepts. This is exactly the reason why — and — would become important symbols for opposition in Chinese philosophy of later times.
During this period, there also gradually developed antithetic words, or the concept of yin and yang in a broad sense. Such words can be found in both Book of Documents and Book of Change. Eventually, there appeared the expression "yin and yang" in the phrase "observe its yin and yang" in the poem Gong Liu (Major Court Hymns, Classic of Poetry). Based on these, there formed the philosophical concept of yin and yang, as apparent from the famous discourse by Bo Yangfu, the royal historian of Zhou, who explained the cause of earthquakes in terms of imbalance between the yin qi and the yang qi, as recorded in The Discourse of Zhou (part 1) in The Discourses of the States:
The Qi of heaven and earth normally maintains its own order; if not, it is because the people have caused confusion in it. If yang is pinned down and prevented from exiting, and yin is oppressed and cannot rise, there would be an earthquake. Now the cause of the recent earthquake in the three rivers is that the yang has been dislodged from its proper place and has oppressed the yin. When this happens, the sources of the rivers will be stopped; if so, the kingdom is bound to collapse.
By the end of the Spring and Autumn Period, there had appeared plenty of yin-and-yang concepts in a broader or more specific sense, i.e. antithetic words, as well as yin-and-yang concepts in a narrower or more abstract sense. Moreover, they were made full use of in pure or relatively pure philosophical thinking. For instance, Sun Tzu said, Heaven signifies yin and yang, cold and heat, times and seasons. (Laying Plans, The Art of War) And Fan Li said, when yang becomes extreme, it will turn into yin, and vice versa. If we are inferior to the enemy, use the yin strategy (i.e. striking only after the enemy has struck); if we are superior, use the yang strategy (i.e. preemptive strike). (The Discourse ofYue II, The Discourses of the States)
Early concepts also take the form of cosmic models, or the generalization of the whole world into several things, phenomena or numbers. Though they may differ from nation to nation and from one ethnic group to another, cosmic models commonly exist as a basic perception or understanding of the world7. One of them is the Chinese concept of the Five Elements.
The concept of the Five Elements can be traced back to the concepts of the Four Directions, a clear form of which can be found in the Classic of Mountains and Seas. For instance, it is said in Classic of Regions beyond the Seas: South that "Kunlun Mound is in the east and square in shape." Moreover, directions are matched with certain animals, gods of wind, and numbers. For example, it is said in Classic of the Great Wilderness: East that the people of Wei lived on millet and could command four kinds of bird as well as tigers, leopards, black bears and brown bears. Archaeological findings can also provide some information in this respect, such as the existence of many cruciform and double-cross (like the Union Jack) patterns on Neolithic painted pottery. Such patterns, which cannot be accidental or meaningless, must be the reflection of a common idea, i.e. the idea of the Four Directions. Established in prehistoric society, this idea was continued during the Three Dynasties (Xia, Shang and Zhou). Additionally, with the founding of a unified dynasty, the awareness of "center" became prominent. For instance, the concept of "central Shang" had already appeared in oracle inscriptions: "Divination conducted on the day of Gengchen, central Shang" (Yi 9078) Thus emerged the idea of the Five Directions.
The concept of the Five Elements first appeared in Great Plan in Book of Documents:
Of the five elements: The first is water; the second is fire; the third, wood; the fourth, metal; and the fifth, earth. (The nature of) water is to soak and descend; of fire, to blaze and ascend; of wood, to be crooked and straight; of metal, to yield and change; while (that of) earth is seen in seed-sowing and in-gathering. That which soaks and descends becomes salt; that which blazes and ascends becomes bitter; that which is crooked and straight becomes sour; that which yields and changes becomes acrid; and from seed-sowing and in-gathering comes sweetness.
According to the current general opinion, this passage, which mainly unfolds in terms of the properties of things or materials, concerns the grasping of the nature of things or the origin of the world.
However, that might not be the original meaning of this concept, which, at the very beginning, was probably related to the ideas of the Five Stars and the Five Materials. In terms of the intellectual background of the term "Five Elements," it must be closely related to the craft of astrology, which was highly developed during the Shang and Zhou Dynasties. It is possible that the Five Elements (wu xing) originally referred to the Five Stars - Chen (Mercury), Taibai (Venus), Yinghuo (Mars), Sui (Jupiter), and Zhen (Saturn). The character xing in wu xing denotes the movement of stars, or heavenly bodies in general, which was already understood during the Spring and Autumn Period (e.g. "In the movement of the sun and the moon, the ecliptic crosses the equator at the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox, and goes beyond the equator at the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice." (Zuo Zhuan, The 2V' Year of the Reign of Duke Zhao) Around the last years of the Western Zhou Dynasty (1046-771BC) there appeared the term "Five Materials," which was already in quite common use during the Spring and Autumn Period (e.g. "So one of the early kings mingled earth with metal, Wood, water and fire to create everything." (The Discourses of the States, The Discourse of Zheng); "Heaven have created the Five Materials, and the people have to use them all, for each of them is indispensable." (Zuo Zhuan, The 27th Year of the Reign of Duke Xiang)
From this it can be imagined that, at first, people might be more interested in the utilitarian significance of things and materials rather than the origin of the world. Therefore the concept of the Five Elements is actually a combination of the specific concepts of the Five Materials (metal, wood, water, fire and earth) and the Five Stars. This combination perhaps indicates that life in the world as represented by the Five Materials and astrological activities as reflected by the Five Stars were the greatest concerns at the time. The former was related to interest in materials in daily life, while the latter was related to the destiny of the state. The combination is clearly described in a remark by Cai Mo, the Grand Historian of the state of Jin (Zuo Zhuan, The 29th Year of the Reign of Duke Zhao), "So there were the Five Officials in charge of the Five Elements, who were given clan and family names, made highest-ranking nobles, and worshipped as gods, to whom sacrifices were offered. The official of wood is called Goumang; the official of fire, Zhurong; the official of metal, Rushou; the official of water, Xuanmin; and the official of earth, Houtu." Here we can not only see factors related to materials and uses, but also astrological factors. Thus the concept of the Five Elements became widely used: Heaven has six kinds of Qi, which generate the Five Tastes, show the Five Colors, and correspond to the Five Tones. (The Is' Year of the Reign of Duke Zhao) So there are the Three Celestial Bodies in heaven and the Five Elements on earth. (The 32ndyear of the Reign of Duke Zhao) There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination they produce more hues than can ever been seen. There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted. (The Art of War, Energy)
Thenceforth, the concepts and ideas of yin and yang and the Five Elements would have a profound impact on the whole philosophy of ancient China.
However, we should also be aware of the mystic overtone or vestiges of magic in the world view based on yin and yang and the Five Elements.
As mentioned before, one of the major sources of the concept of yin and yang is Book of Change, which was used for divination8. The basic symbols — and - - in Book of Change, which originally represented a long bamboo tube (or a long blade of yarrow) and two short bamboo tubes (or two short blades of yarrow) respectively, stand for two results - auspiciousness and inauspiciousness, or benefit and harm. At first divination was perhaps done only once each time. Sometime later, finding this too haphazard, people began to do it twice or thrice each time. The adoption of three-time divination could be an important step, for it is not so haphazard as onetime divination, or likely to have contradictory results, as two-time divination does. Hence the saying that "divination should not be done more than three times." Nevertheless, the number of times would still be increased to four, five or even six. Moreover, through repetitive divination people began to notice the permutations of — and - - . Three-time divination was bound to produce eight results or the Eight Trigrams (Bagua) as they would be called.
Similarly, six-time divination would produce 64 kinds of result, hence the 64 Trigrams. However, the obtainment of the 64 Trigrams might purely or mainly have been the result of interest in permutations rather than divinatory needs. In a word, Book of Change was a book for divination. As such, however, it has always been regarded as the most important of all the traditional classics. As Commentaries on Book of Change puts it,
The Yi was made on a principle of accordance with heaven and earth, and shows us therefore, without rent or confusion, the course (of things) in heaven and earth. (A7 Ci I)
It was by the Yi that the sages exalted their virtue, and enlarged their sphere of occupation, (ditto)
In the period when metaphysics was in vogue during the Wei and Jin Dynasties, Book of Change was one of the "three metaphysical classics" (the other two being Tao Te Ching and Chuang Tzu). Today it is still regarded as a milestone in the history of Chinese philosophy. This shows that intellectuals or thinkers, who are supposed to form the most rational group, had maintained a close relationship with traditional belief rather than broken with the tradition of divination or magic. This was bound to have a profound impact on Chinese philosophical ideas and thinking9.
The same is true of the concept of the Five Elements. As discussed before, this concept originated from knowledge about directions and divination, which were related to various degrees to religious activities and beliefs. Having developed during the Spring and Autumn Period, the concept gave rise to the School of Yin, Yang and Five Elements during the Warring States Period, which enjoyed considerable prestige for some time. This school was characterized, above everything else, by matching up of all kinds of natural phenomena, such as directions, seasons, colors, tastes, musical tones and numbers, with deities. Central to such corresponding relationships was the concept of the Five Elements. For instance, it is said in the chapter Proceedings of Government in the Different Months in Book of Rites that:
(In the first month of spring) ... Its days are Jia and Yi. Its divine ruler is Tai Hao, and the (attending) spirit is Goumang. Its creatures are the scaly. Its musical note is Jue, and its pitch-tube is the Taicu. Its number is eight; its taste is sour; its smell is rank.
The same words are found in the chapter Records on the First Month of Spring in The Annals of Lii Buwei. Afterwards, such theories had a wide influence on intellectual activities, making them inevitably mystic to some degree. For instance, the east corresponds to blue in color and is related to the liver that opens into the eyes and stores Jing (Essence). The manifestation of the liver disease is fright. As to the analogy, the liver is related to sour in tastes, grasses and trees in Wood, chicken in domestic animals, wheat in crops and Jupiter in stars in the four seasons, {so Chunqi (Spring-Qi) and the diseases caused by it often involve the head} Jiao in scales, eight in numbers {so the liver diseases often involve the sinews} and foul smell in odors. (The Inner Canon of the Yellow Emperor, Basic Questions, Discussion on the Important Ideas in the Golden Chamber) East corresponds to wood and Emperor Taihao. His assistant is Goumang, who rules Spring with a pair of compasses. East is also related to the god Suixing (Jupiter), the Black Dragon, the tone Jue, and the days of Jia and Yi. (Huai Nan Zi, Treatise on Astronomy) By then the theory of the Five Elements had completely become a cosmic model containing a miscellany of mystic and fantastic beliefs.
Incidentally, it is worth mentioning that, with the introduction of Buddhism and the birth of Taoism, such mystic thoughts would have a profound impact on ideas and knowledge. For instance, though Chinese medicine began to eschew magic as early as in the pre-Qin period, it came to embrace superstitions about spirits and karmic retribution during the Tang Dynasty due to the introduction of Buddhist incantations. This was actually a reverse to magic.