DAOIST-LEGALIST SOCIALISM: One with real Chinese characteristics 
(Table of contents)

 

Five-Way Correlation (五行): Basic Paradigm for Yin-Yang Balance 
-- A translation from Chinese of Part II-3(6) of the book:

Where is the Mankind Heading for:

Contests and realignments between ideologies in the new century

EDITOR’S NOTE: This is an excerpt from the author’s book in Chinese on philosophy and social theories published in 2013. The book partially summarizes the results of the author’s decades-long exploration in the realm of ideology and is rich in ideas both old and new at the same time – new expositions in modern terminology of traditional Chinese thought as applied to social issues and ideologies of the world today. Any comment and criticism and any offer to help improve the English translation of the whole book will be welcome and appreciated. For a list of contents of the book with links to other translated parts, please see:

Where is the Mankind Heading for: Contests and realignments between ideologies in the new century: List of content

THE TEXT

II. Human Society: A dynamically-balanced multi-dimensional whole (continued)

II-3. Dynamic balance of multi-dimensional whole (continued)

II-3(6). Five-Way Correlation: Basic Paradigm for Yin-Yang Balance

If “the unity of opposites” postulation can sometimes pass off as identical with the traditional Chinese theory of Yin-Yang balance, the theory on five-way correlation derived from Yin-Yang antithesis is able to draw a clear demarcation line between the above two

II-3(6-i). From two forms (两仪) to four quadrants (四象)

To know about the five-way correlation, one must get to know about the four quadrants first.

As the two forms of Yin and Yang represent two antithetic aspects in alternate decline and growth (not any monolithic and mechanically static entities), each one cycle of such a dynamic process naturally shows itself in four phases (represented by four quadrants): a) From strongest but declining Yin vs. weakest but growing Yang to a near balance between a half strong Yin and half weak Yang; b) From half strong and continuously declining Yin vs. half weak and continuously growing Yang to weakest Yin vs. strongest Yang; c) From strongest but declining Yang vs. weakest but growing Yin to a near balance between a half strong Yang and half weak Yin; d) From half strong and continuously declining Yang vs. half weak and continuously growing Yin back to weakest Yang vs. strongest Yin. The four quadrants thus derived from the two forms can represent the following different phenomena in nature: the four time intervals of a day, the four quarters of a month, the four seasons of a year, the four regions of the sky ecliptic in Chinese astronomy symbolized by the four animals of Azure Dragon (青龍) on the east, Black Tortoise (玄武) on the north, White Tiger (白虎) on the west, and Vermilion Bird (朱雀). What is more intriguing is the fact that the above four animals are also symbols of the four seasons. This shows that ancient Chinese were already able to reach beyond the limit of their senses and be aware of the relative nature of the distinction between time and space and be oblivious of mind/matter divide.

The four time-space junctures at “strongest Yin”, “near balance with Yin declining”, “strongest Yang”, and “near balance with Yang declining” between the four time-space regions/phases represented by the above four quadrants indicate that quantitative changes have been accumulated to such a degree that qualitative changes are happening at these points of time-space. Thus, these points can be called “qualitative-change junctures” while the four phases “quantitative-change zones”. And the four-quadrant image actually describes in a visual way the process of quantitative changes accumulating and transforming into qualitative changes in all things. As the number “four” here indicates the minimum count needed to differentiate the sub-processes, or phases, in the general course of alternate growth and decline of Yin and Yang in everything, the four-quadrant concept discussed here is of fundamental importance to the observation and understanding of all things in existence.

II-3(6-ii). From four quadrants (四象) to five-way correlation (五行)

Besides the recognition of the alternate growth and decline of Yin and Yang in everything, another characteristic of traditional Chinese thought, as is in contrast to the Western one of not seeing the wood for the trees, is its examination of each part and the whole of anything in their multidimensional relatedness. Therefore, in between the four quadrants there is also a core linkage that commands and holds them all together as one integrated whole and stands for the oneness of all the relationships in this “four plus one” scheme. Four plus one is five, each of which counts. Hence the term “five-way correlation”. For instance, when Jin, Mu, Shui and Huo respectively symbolize the four seasons of spring, summer, fall and winter, Tu symbolizes the earth as the core, as without the earth revolving around the sun there would be no distinction between the seasons. When they stand for the four directions of east, west, north and south, Tu represents the middle or center; when they indicate the four regions of the sky, Tu stands for the Big Dipper in the center. The Big Dipper in its relationship with the four regions “manifests all the changes of time and seasons on earth as unmistakably as the hands of a clock in telling the time” (吕嘉戈：《中国哲学方法》，上海中医药大学出版社，2007，27页) . This obviously points to the universal significance of the “five-way correlation” paradigm to human understanding of all existence.

Because Yin-Yang relationship exists in both the natural world and human society, in both the material and the spiritual world, on all micro and macro levels of existence, in all things and processes, the five-way correlation should actually be the all-inclusive basic paradigm in human cognition. The author once asked such a rhetorical question: Why not “four-way” or “three-way”, or “six-way” or “seven-way”, but exclusively “five-way correlation”? Now from the above analysis, it is clear that “four” is the smallest possible number to count the qualitatively distinguished phases in the general process of rise and fall of Yin and Yang. When added the “one” that represents the whole of the general process, the total correlative linkage becomes at least “five-way”. That is why “four-way” or “three-way” would not do. On the other hand, within each of the four phases the changes are all quantitative while qualitative changes happen only at the four points which separate the four phases from one another. Besides these, with no more quantitative-change phases with a different quality in each, there cannot be any more qualitative-change points within each cycle. (Four qualitative-change points plus four quantitative-change phases make up the content of Eight Diagrams.) Therefore, the maximum probability count for qualitative changes in Yin-Yang relationships is no more than “four”. Hence the “five-way correlation”, neither more nor less than “five”, as the most basic paradigm for human understanding of all things and processes.

The five-way correlation is usually represented by “Jin, Mu, shui, huo, tu” (金、木、水、火、土), which originally stand for five elements (metal, wood, water, fire, and earth), but not here – With their mutually reinforcing and counteracting relationship, they as one set symbolically represent the complicated relatedness between the parts and between the whole and the parts (in space and time) of all things in a process of change. This is what is essential in the five-way correlation theory.

II-3(6-iii). Basic-relational-schema approach vs. basic-particle approach

Mainstream Western thought reduces the world to an immense mass of mechanically heaped-up “basic particles”, such as molecules or atoms. Hence the terms “atomism” or “reductionism”.  A typical atomist, unable to apprehend Chinese ideas and ways of conveying such ideas, generally misunderstand the five characters representing the five-way schema as five basic elements. That is why one should not interpret traditional Chinese concepts in the Western way of thinking; otherwise it would amount to raping and murdering Chinese culture. It might be said that, while the basic-particle approach is typical of the Western way of thinking, the basic-relational-schema approach typified by the “Yin-Yang and Five-Way” theory represents the Chinese line of thought. Both try to get to the “basic”, but one focuses on “particle” while the other on “relational schema”. Particles can be divided and divided again and again and again till infinity, whereas a schema or paradigm, once proved to be true to the Way of all things and processes, can be considered as “basic” and passed on forever – it only needs to be applied flexibly to ever-changing conditions. Also, while particles on different levels, such as molecules, atoms, and electrons, have different interior contents, the Five-Way paradigm runs through all levels of existence from the infinitesimal to the infinitely large, showing itself in all things and processes as one consistent, universal and unifying way of existence.

The Chinese concept of the five-way correlation of Yin and Yang originated in the observation of cycles of change in nature and is actually applicable to everything, whether they are organisms or inorganic things, whether natural existences or social phenomena, whether macroscopical or microscopical, whether tangible objects or abstractions. That is because “All [things] carry the opposites Yin and Yang” (Laozi, Chapter 42) and, with the cyclical rise and fall of Yin and Yang, there come the four quadrants and five-way correlation. It is by applying this cognitive paradigm that Chinese medicine, for instance, has for thousands of years in the history of Chinese civilization guided people in overcoming sicknesses and preserving health so that the population has flourished continuously till today and, besides, it has made great contribution to the continuation of the nation’s cultural tradition by helping carry on this superior way of looking at things, superior for its richness in philosophical wisdom.

       The above explanation of how the five-way correlation theory can be deduced from the two forms of Yin and Yang shows clearly that the Yin-Yang concept is the soul of the five-way theory, just as the law of unity of opposites is the soul of materialistic dialectics. Obviously, however, the Yin-Yang balance theory and that of the unity of opposites, in spite of their certain similarity in their way of verbal expression, are totally different in the underlying meaning.