Wake Forest University
Patrick Edwin Moran
Traditional:
天地統是一箇大陰陽。一年又有一年之陰陽，一月又有一 月之陰陽，一日一時皆然。端蒙。陰陽五行。
Simplified:
天地统是一个大阴阳。一年又有一年之阴阳，一月又有一 月之阴阳，一日一时皆然。端蒙。阴阳五行。
big5:
椧zA``ݱobثeAh۵McToC
HǡC
GB:
ͳһһһ֮һһ ֮һһʱȻɡС
Translation:
Heaven and Earth together are a great Yin and Yang. A year has a year's yin and yang, a month
also has a month's yin and yang, a day and an hour are also this way.
Duan-meng.
Yin, Yang, and the Five Components of activity.
Commentary:
When people begin to try to understand the deeper structure of their world, it seems that they frequently use what they already understand to try to explain what they do not yet understand. In the case of the Yi Jing, two experiences were fused together to form explanations for the nature of the processes that occur in the world. One of these was intercourse and reproduction, and the other was the constant cycles such as the seasons of the year, the times of the day, the phases of the moon. Perhaps there is a kind of natural connection between the two since reproduction is the beginning of a life cycle that begins with new life and reaches its practical end with the production of a new life by means of intercourse and reproduction. Regardless of exactly what chain of reasoning led the ancient writers of the documents that were compiled to form the Yi Jing to fuse these two processes together, the impact of that early decision can be seen in the passage under consideration here.
Heaven is interpreted as being male, and Earth is interpreted as being female. The sexual union of these two vast entities leads to the continual production of creatures in the womb space between Heaven and Earth.
The progress of each year involves a cycle from the coldest day of winter to the hotest day of summer and back. So winter and the descent into winter is identified as the yin part of the cycle, and summer and the ascent into summer is identified as the yang part of the cycle. The waxing of the moon is regarded as the yang part of the monthly cycle, and the waning of the moon is regarded as its yin phase. The rising of the sun toward the zenith and noon is regarded as the yang phase of a day, and the setting of the sun and progress toward midnight is regarded as its yin phase.
Sometimes in the creation of theoretical explanations for things people are mesmerized by words. I think that is the reason that Zhu Xi includes the unit of time into which the day was divided. He fails to see that this unit of time is arbitrary, and he fails to observe that there is no waxing and waning comparable to the seasons of the year in the passage of time through one hour or one watch. For him, since a year involves a cycle, a month involves a cycle, and a day involves a cycle, then the next smaller unit of time must also involve a cycle.
There is a somewhat related idea that is not mentioned by Zhu Xi at this point, but which may be of interest for the light it throws on the factors that he does mention. The cycles of the year have an obvious impact known to all agricultural peoples. The cycles of the moon also have an impact on the reproduction of certain animals, on the tides, and perhaps on still other phenomena. The cycles of the days affect our degree of sleepiness and wakefulness, the opening and closing of flowers, etc., etc. We know the times of the year by the gradual rotation of the celestial sphere which reveals itself to us by the positions of the stars in the night sky. We know the times of the month by watching the phases of the moon. We know the passage of the day by observing the movement of the sun across the sky. So it is perhaps not completely surprising that since the other moving entities in the sky had an obvious impact on terrestrial events, the other moving entities in the sky, the planets and the comets, were also thought to exert powerful influences.
The names of the five planets (wu3 xing2 xing1, P) are the same as the Five Components of Activity (wu3 xing2, ). As the sun is taken to be the "emblem" of the cosmic Yang (and is called the "Great Yang", i.e., Tai4 Yang2), and the moon is taken to be the "emblem" of the cosmic Yin Iand is called the "Great Yin", (i.e., Tai4 Yin1), so too, the five planets may have been considered to be the "emblems" of the Five Components of Activity. There appears to have been some very early cultural transmission between the West and China. See my speculations here.
-- PEM