Wake Forest University
Patrick Edwin Moran
Traditional:
陰陽是氣，五行是質。有這質，所以做得物事出來。五行 雖是質，他又有五行之氣做這物事，方得。然卻是陰陽二 氣截做這五箇，不是陰陽外別有五行。如十干甲乙，甲便 是陽，乙便是陰。
高。淵同。
Simplified:
阴阳是气，五行是质。有这质，所以做得物事出来。五行 虽是质，他又有五行之气做这物事，方得。然却是阴阳二 气截做这五个，不是阴阳外别有五行。如十干甲乙，甲便 是阳，乙便是阴。
高。渊同。
big5:
OAOCoAҥHoƥXӡC OALS椧𰵳oơAoCMoOG IoAO~OCpQzҤAAҫK OAAKOC
CWPC
GB:
ʡʣ³ ʣ֮£áȻȴ Сʮɼңױ ұ
ߡԨͬ
Translation:
Yin and Yang are qi. The Five Components of Activity are zhi. It is necessary to have zhi in order to put out things and events. Although the Five Components of Activity are zhi, they also [each] have their own qi, by means of which they make these things and events. Despite that, it was Yin and Yang, those two qi, that are fabricated into those five. It is not the case that outside of Yin and Yang there are Five Components that have a separate existence. It is like Jia and Yi in the Ten Stems. Jia is yang, and Yi is yin.
Commentary:
Several critical concepts are woven together in this conversation: Yin, Yang, qi, Wu Xing, and zhi.
Yin (is qi) Yang (is qi)
Wu Xing (are zhi) (have qi)
Things
Looking at the sequence displayed here, it seems clear that the qi of Yin and the qi of Yang are energies having different characteristics that act to produce the Five Components. Something that is generated from "above" by qi is called a zhi. As entities in the Universe, the Five Components have their own existence (even if it is a derivative existence), and their own energetic components, their own qi. These qi enable them to "make things and events."
What I think we are beginning to see delineated here is an account of how a primal unity modifies itself so that it remains a unity yet demonstrates differentiation that leads to a universe that appears to be populated by discrete individuals. In the West, we have long considered, for very good reasons, that the things of this Universe are composed out of fundamental particles. A diamond is just a collection of a huge number of these fundamental particles arranged in a certain way. Under that interpretation there would seem to be no problem to account for the the existence of discrete individuals. But there is a problem in accounting for the unity of phenomena. From the standpoint of a minerologist trying to define what a diamond is, to say that it is a crystal lattice of carbon atoms, and perhaps to inform people of the structure of carbon atoms and explain why they form crystals of a certain type, will probably seem a quite adequate explanation. However, if someone asks whether all carbon atoms are alike, or whether all protons, all neutrons, all electrons, etc. are alike, then the answer becomes much more complicated. What gives us any justification for asserting that the same element, carbon, will be found on another planet, or in a different galaxy? If we seek to justify the claim that carbon atoms will be carbon atoms wherever they are found, we will probably get pressed back to the level of sub-atomic particles. Again, the conclusion that seems to be supported by experience is that there are a relatively small number of these sub-atomic particles, and that means that they cannot be further differentiated. So there are presumably identical sub-atomic particles to be found all over the Universe. Then the question becomes how to explain this cosmic monotony. What reaches throughout all of space and time to stamp the same mold, as it were, on electrons? What unifies the natures of cosmic numbers of sub-atomic particles?
Zhu Xi, and many other Chinese philosophers before him, would not have the problem of accounting for unity. For them, things are as diagrammed in Zhou Dun-yi's Tai Ji Diagram. Everything comes out of the Tai-ji, which is a unity with no discernable characteristics and so it totally beyond our ken. Things come out of the Tai-ji because that is the only characteristic it has, and it could no more fail to produce than the sun could fail to shine. The first level of dependent being can be described as a single qi. Other Chinese philosophies have discussed this qi, but Zhu Xi does not. That is because he sees this primal qi as having as an intrinsic part of its nature the tendency to wax and to wane, so that it is a single qi with a Yang phase and an Yin phase. So he speaks of there being two qi, just as he speaks of there being two phases of the great cycle, and somewhat obscures the fact that they are qualitative differences in regions of what is in fact a continuous whole. The only division that occurs is a mental division that occurs in the minds of people who are trying to describe the behavior of the primal level.
The Yin-Yang level of being has a derivitive creative ability or potential, and because of that creative impulse a secondary level of being is created. This level is sometimes described as a four-phase system and sometimes as a five-phase system. As long as you realize that dividing it by fourths or fifths is an active process of the human mind and does not imply any discontinuities in this cycle, it does not greatly complicate Zhu Xi's account to follow traditions that have come down through a long and honored tradition and talk about phenomena in two different ways. This secondary layer is named or characterized in two additional ways. It, or its components if you prefer, can be called zhi because the qualities involved are more specific, less general, and therefore more "concrete." By "concrete" I simply mean that they are less abstract, less far removed from everyday human experience. But just because they are less abstract than Yin and Yang does not mean that they fail to inherit the creativity that is essential to the Tai-ji. They have creativity, or activity, but the creativity of each component is linked to the characteristics of that component. So we say that the Five Components have five qi, which simply means that each of the five has its characteristic "behavior" and "energy."
The conversation discussed here does not carry this process of differentiation any further, but if the argument can be carried forth in a consistent way, then the several qi of the Five Components of Activity ought to form entities an another level of dependent being that will be zhi in respect to the Five Components of Activity and qi in respect to the level of dependent being that they form. In other places Zhu Xi carries this process of differentiation through six levels (corresponding to the six layers of lines that form a hexagram in the Yi Jing, and in a small number of places he indicates that in the real world this process of differentiation does not stop at the sixth level.
-- PEM