Page 92 - The Encyclopedia of Taoism v1_A-L

52 THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF TAOISM VOL. J

Table l.
YIN YANG YIN YANG
Earth Heaven Child Father
Autumn Spring Younger brother Elder brother
Winter Summer Younger Older
Night Day Base Noble
Small states Large states arrow-minded Broad-minded
Unimportant states Important states Mourning Taking a wife.
begetting a child
Non-action Action Being controlled Controlling others
by others
Conrracting Srretching Host Guest
Minister Ruler Laborers Soldiers
Below Above Silence Speech
Woman Man Receiving Giving
Yin and Yang entities according to the *Mawangdui manuscript Cheng m
(Designations). Based on Yates 1997. 169. and Graham 1989. 330-31.

And clearly nothing is Yin or Yang in itself and outside the context of a rela-
tionship: without Yin there is no Yang, and vice versa.
This simple system has a wide range of applications. Thus in Chinese
medicine, a function such as digestion is seen as Yang, whereas the physical
substrate that enables this function is seen as Ym. Supposing one has a severely
malnourished patient, Yin-Yang thinking will draw attention to the need to
restore both sides of the digestive partnership together, since a large meal given
at once will demand Yang activity that the weakened Yin substrate cannot
sustain. Thus initial nourishment should be small, with a gradual increase as
function and substrate strengthen one another.

Wuxing. By the early imperial period, another correlative system was also
well elaborated-not in competition with Yin-Yang, but in complementary
relation with it. This was the so-called wuxing, a term which can reasonably
be translated as Five Phases or Five Agents. Here the groupings go by fives,
not by twos. The headings for this list of fivefold correlations are drawn from
important elements in the functioning of the natural world: Wood (mu ;if:),
Fire (huo j(), Soil (tu ± ), Metal (jin si£), and Water (shui 7.1< ). The correlations
of these five emblems are shown in table 25.
Clearly any pattern that can include numbers, seasons, directions, colors
and types of animal is not talking of phYSical ingredients like the ancient Greek
elements, but is correlating systems of relationship. But if Yin-Yang thinking