syncretic The Han them, paror Tao. Tmetaphysyang or F

The essenTao, or Gwhich opuniverse the univeovercomyang andone anothprincipleof the staqualities historicalsome wainstance. The yin athe princunder yinsubmissithings unoccurs un

Ch ThelevhadwitphiChhun Theof rTzutherathatte

c project of th

philosopherrticularly the

This new thesical workinFive Agents

ntials of the Great Ultimappose one ancan be reduc

erse through e one anothe

d the progresher. Yin-yane. All phenoars, the workof humans, l change. Aly: one can u

and yang repiples of malen are the prinon, and so o

nder yang, thnder the prin

hinese Ph

e early Han vel of centrald so ruthlessth the Legaliilosophy, ledinese thoughndred years.

e Legalists arival schoolsu, or Mo Tzu

eir methods wher than rejeempted to fuhe early Han

rs concentrate I ching , orory of the un

ngs of the ents school of C

yin-yang scate. This prinnother in theiced to one othe five mat

er. All changss of the fiveng and the fivmena can be

kings of the bthe progressl things follo

use the stars t

present all theness, the sunciples of femn. Each of th

he earth prodnciple of yan

hilosophy

dynasty (207l governmenly accomplisists' attemptsd thinkers ofht and philos

attempted to s and by maku. The Han twhile adoptinect alternate use all the rivn is known a

ted specificar Book of Chniverse they tire universe

Chinese thou

hool are as fnciple is diviir actions, yif the oppositterial agentsge in the unive material agve agents aree understoodbody, the nats of time, theow this ordeto determine

he opposite pun, creation, maleness, thhese oppositduces their mng, the comp

y: Yin an

7 B.C.-9 A.Dnt as the Ch'inshed. This ids to standardf the Han to asophy that ha

standardize king it a capthinkers, whng many of ways of thinval schools oas the Han sy

ally on the Fihanges, the pappended to

e and is the ought.

follows: the ided into twoin and yang. te forces. Th, or wu hsingverse can beents as they e, I need to s

d using yin-yture of foodse operations r so that all t

e what kind o

principles onheat, light, H

he moon, comtes produce t

material formletion of the

nd Yang

D.) devoted n (221 B.C.-deology of cdize Chineseattempt to unad develope

Chinese thopital crime toho thoroughly

their goals, tnking, they toof thought inynthesis.

ive Classicsprinciple of to the I chingorigin of wha

universe is ro opposite pr All the opphe yin and yag , which boe explained beither produ

stress, a univyang and thes, the qualitiof governmthings can bof policy to

ne finds in thHeaven, dommpletion, cothe other: He

ms under yin,e created thin

itself to rega-207 B.C.) a

central gover culture and nify all the rd over the p

ought by buro speak of Coy despised thtook a differook a syncre

nto a single s

, attemptingthe working

g ; this appenat is called th

run by a singrinciples, or osites one pang accomp

oth produce oby the workiuce one anotversal expla

e five agents:ies of music,ent, and eve

be related to pursue in go

he universe. Uminance, andold, darknesseaven create, and vice veng occurs un

aining the saand the Legarnment, alonChinese

rival schoolsrevious thre

rning the booonfucius, Lahe Legalists rent approacetic approachsystem. This

g to derive fros of the univ

ndix explainshe yin-

gle principletwo princip

erceives in tlish changesone another ings of yin anther or overcanatory : the movem, the ethical

en the natureone another

overnment, f

Under yang d so on, and s, material foes the ideas oersa; creationnder yin, and

ame alists ng

s of e

oks ao

and ch; h and

s

om verse, s the

e, the ples the s in and nd

come

ments

of in

for

are

orms, of n d vice

versa, and so on. This production of yin from yang and yang from yin occurs cyclically and constantly, so that no one principle continually dominates the other or determines the other. All opposites that one experiences—health and sickness, wealth and poverty, power and submission—can be explained in reference to the temporary dominance of one principle over the other. Since no one principle dominates eternally, that means that all conditions are subject to change into their opposites. This cyclical nature of yin and yang, the opposing forces of change in the universe, mean several things. First, that all phenomena change into their opposites in an eternal cycle of reversal. Second, since the one principle produces the other, all phenomena have within them the seeds of their opposite state, that is, sickness has the seeds of health, health contains the seeds of sickness, wealth contains the seeds of poverty, etc. Third, even though an opposite may not be seen to be present, since one principle produces the other, no phenomenon is completely devoid of its opposite state. One is never really healthy since health contains the principle of its opposite, sickness. This is called "presence in absence." The thinkers of the early Han dynasty attempted to fuse many of the strains of Chinese thought to come up with a syncretic and systematic explanation of the universe, the changes that occur in the universe, and the relation of the human world to the physical and divine worlds. Their thought focused on two inventions, both designed to explain the changing world in much the same way Aristotle's four causes were designed as a universal explanatory framework for explaining change. The first of these inventions, the principles of yin and yang, opposite forces of change which complement and cyclically give rise to one another, operated through the physical mechanism of "the five material agents," or wu-hsing .

Richard Hooker

Richard Hooker, “Chinese Philosophy: Yin and Yang,” http://www.wsu.edu/~dee/CHPHIL/YINYANG.HTM accessed 14 October 2010.