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Yin & Yang. female dark cool moist passive negative. Yin. Yang. male bright hot dry active positive. Earth & moon. Yin & yang is not a “good vs bad” type dualism. Good is achieved when the right balance and mix is achieved between yin and yang in a given thing/situation.
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Yin & Yang female dark cool moist passive negative Yin Yang male bright hot dry active positive Earth & moon Yin & yang is not a “good vs bad” type dualism. Good is achieved when the right balance and mix is achieved between yin and yang in a given thing/situation. Heaven & sun
The West (Greeks) had a 4 element theory: earth, water, fire, air ☲ The five elements are usually used to describe the state in nature: Wood/Spring: a period of growth, which generates abundant wood and vitality; Fire/Summer: a period of swellness, which overbrews with fire and energy; Metal/Autumn: a period of fruition, which produces formation and bears fruit; Water/Winter: a period of retreat, where stillness pervades; Earth: the in-between transitional seasonal periods ☷ ☳ ☵ ☰ Chinese Alchemy has a 5 Element Theory
= the fundamental energy that configures into particular things. Chi = Ch’i = There is no mind-matter dualism: but there is light ch’iand heavy ch’i. Spirituality is meant to cultivate light ch’i. Living badly weighs your ch’i down. The primordial ch’I was light. This idea-gram is vapor coming out of matter Examples: * When music effects us, it’s the flow of ch’i. Nature gives us food (flow of ch’i). * In medicine, disease is defined as a bad flow of ch’i in the body which can be healed spiritually, or with acupuncture. Equilibrium (balance) of your ch’I with the universe needs to be established.
S Yin & yang and the 5 elements have directional associations… E W N ..as well as associations with colors, virtues, animals, plants etc.
FengShui: the study of how direction and location can be planned and arranged to get the most positive outcomes Grave sites City planning Home location Interior decorating
Central concepts in Pre-Confucian thought Ontology & Cosmology Metaphysics • The Dao (“The Way”) - the Ultimate; the One; the Absolute; the underlying Power; the Source. It is a connected, holistic, organic worldview that trusts spontaneity over propriety and nature over civilization. It is somewhat mysterious and indescribable. • Yin/Yang - the dual expression of Dao. • Heaven (ti’en) & Earth; an ever-changing expression & blend of Yin & Yang.(Heaven is Yang in relation to Earth; and Earth is Yin in relation to Heaven; but each is, in itself, a blend of both Yin & Yang.) Taoism will absorb these ideas wholly into a very spiritual/magical worldview; Confucianism will modify them into a more philosophical /sociological worldview.
Syncretism in Chinese Worldviews:Chinese Folk Religion as a Compatible Common Element in Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism in China Qing dynasty painting of Confucius presenting the baby Gautama to Laozi
I would suggest that compatibility between Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism is due to the fact that all 3 traditions had to be basically compatible with Native Chinese Folk Traditions. Confucianism Buddhism Taoism Native Chinese Folk Religion
Pre-Confucian Chinese Theology • Shang-Ti (God), the original ancestor (after the 11th century BC) • Heaven (Tian, T’ien) - the divine realm(Human beings who have died live on with Shang-Ti as ancestors (ti) in Heaven.) • Continuity & interchange between Heaven (the divine realm) and Earth (the human realm), i.e., between the ancestors & those living on Earth. The ancestors are to be worshipped, and sacrifices are to be offered to them; they, in turn, will guide and protect us, especially with regard to our futures (divination practices). When we die, we will join theancestors in Heaven and become ancestors ourselves. Spiritism: spirits are everywhere, both good [shen] & evil [gui]). [No hell(s)? See next slide.]
…it seems that Chinese religions did not contain a well- developed idea of an afterlife. The souls of those who had lived in accord with the “Mandate of Heaven” (will of Shang-Ti) would become ancestors in Heaven; the souls of those who had not followed Heaven’s decree would, after death, continue to live on for a time in a dark underworld area (called “the Yellow Springs”) & then fade away into nothingness. The idea of multiple levels of hell entered Chinese religion through Buddhism, which arrived in China in the 1st century AD. The religious Daoists accepted this idea (but modified it in various ways). Apparently, the Confucianists continued to show little interest in this subject. Before the arrival of Buddhism in China…