Lecture 4: Yin and Yang and the Cultural Definition of the Five Elements

Yin and Yang and the Five Elements are the core definition of Chinese civilization and the cultural fulcrum of traditional Chinese science.

The reason is that the theory of "Yin and Yang and the Five Elements" is a purely materialistic doctrine that does not contain "spiritual" or "conceptual" things, and the "Yin and Yang and the Five Elements" theory is the study of all things in the universe, and is a theory of time and space. Philosophy, on the other hand, is the study of the "spirit" and "matter" of human beings. Philosophy covers the two major cultural concepts of materialism and idealism, which are not related to traditional Chinese science and culture, so do not confuse cultural concepts.

The reason why Chinese are often confused about cultural concepts is related to the lack of logical thinking in traditional Chinese culture, and also related to the fact that Chinese attach importance to the accumulation of experience and the inheritance from generation to generation.

A large part of traditional Chinese culture is the accumulation of experience, the lessons drawn from intuitive observation of nature, disseminated and verified from generation to generation, and finally summarized into a complete set of theories to prove that everything in the universe is right and wrong. Rather than using logical thinking methods such as concepts, judgments, and reasoning to understand the essence and laws of things.

Therefore, it is not possible to confuse traditional Chinese philosophy with Western philosophy, and to mislead later learners by defining erroneous concepts on the basis of cultural concepts that have remained unchanged through the ages.

The theory of yin and yang was born at the beginning of Chinese civilization, and was the experience of the Chinese people observing celestial phenomena, and accumulated into a set of Chinese people's study of time and space in the universe, as well as a cultural concept. "Yin and Yang" is easy to understand, the day is "yang", the night is "yin", extending to all things The sky is yang, the earth is yin, the man is yang, the woman is yin, the front of the object is yang, and the back side is yin.

The Five Elements Doctrine was produced before the oracle bone inscription, later than the Yin and Yang Theory, but it was a study that had been produced by the Chinese people when they began to use the Sexagenary Branches to record the years, and the Five Elements Doctrine was basically formed in the Han Dynasty after hundreds of years of exploration and accumulation in the Zhou Dynasty.

The Five Elements Doctrine is a regular concept of thought derived by ancient Chinese naturalists from observing nature, rather than a method of thinking such as comparison, analysis, synthesis, abstraction, and generalization, which must be clearly distinguished.

The ancient Chinese Five Elements Doctrine contains abstract and inferential concepts, but it is definitely not the study of logical thinking. The reason is very simple, ancient Chinese naturalists observed that the sun rises in the east, the weather is warm, and all things are bathed in sunlight and thrive, so "wood" is used to represent the east, spring, cyan, liver and gallbladder, eyes, anger and so on. In the middle of the day, the sun is southern, and all things are immersed in the fiery sun, so "fire" is used to symbolize the south, summer, red, heart, small intestine, tongue, joy and so on. At dusk in the West Mountain, the weather is getting colder, and all things are collected, so "gold" is used to symbolize the West, autumn, white, lungs, large intestine, nose, sadness and so on. The sun hides the moon, the night comes, the yin moves, the water vapor gathers in the yin, and the cold winter comes, so "water" is used to symbolize winter, the north, black, kidneys, bladder, fear, and so on. The earth is the soil, nourishing all things, and the homeland is hidden between the four seasons, which is a metaphor for yellow, spleen, stomach, mouth, thought, and so on.

The theory of yin and yang and the theory of the five elements have laid two basic studies in the long-term life and practice of the Chinese nation, one is traditional Chinese medicine and the other is numerology. In layman's terms, it is the two normal manifestations of demand in Chinese behavior, one is to see a doctor and ask for treatment, and the other is to look at life and ask questions.

Here we will not talk about the theoretical roots of traditional Chinese culture, but only talk about the practical theory of medicine and numerology of the Chinese nation, that is, seeing a doctor and seeing fate.