The relationship between the Chinese cosmology and the Five Elements

The Chinese cosmology comes from the Book of Changes

Zhouyi Research, 2006, Issue 01.

The cosmology of the Book of Changes and the origin of the thought of the Five Elements of Yin and Yang Sun Xiguo 【Abstract】: From the perspective of the development of thought itself, the Five Elements of Yin and Yang have an important relationship with the Book of Changes. The concept of yin and yang change and the cosmology with strong primitive thinking characteristics in the Book of Changes are the theoretical cornerstones of the thought of the five elements of yin and yang, and the schema and sequence of the universe of the five elements of yin and yang are indiscriminately located here.

The way of cognition characterized by "causal association" in the Book of Changes has had an important impact on the basic way in which the five elements of yin and yang understand and grasp the world. The concept of time and space in the Book of Changes is also closely related to the idea that the five elements of yin and yang are matched with the four times and the four directions, and the five elements of yin and yang are used to explain the maximization of the universe, the changes of society, and the behavior of personnel.

The universe is time, space is space, and the universe refers to time and space.

The five elements refer to the five elements of gold, wood, water, fire, and earth, which are the components of nature.

The five elements will change and change because of the difference in time and space, and the same thing or event will change because of the difference in time and space.

Glass, for example, was available a long time ago, when it was expensive, and now, it is very cheap.

Another example, the fruit of the south, just down,. It's very cheap, and when it is loaded to the north, it will be doubled.

Qimen Dunjia has great accuracy in choosing time and space.

The hexagram procedure of "Tai Chi gives birth to two instruments, two instruments give birth to four images, and four elephants give birth to gossip" in Zhou Yi symbolizes the procedure of all things in nature.

The outline of Zhou Yi's cosmology "Tai Chi, Liangyi, Four Elephants, Bagua." Taiji is the foundation of the changes in the universe, the origin of the universe, and the two instruments are the Qiankun, yin and yang, and heaven and earth; The four images are the four seasons and the hexagram is all things. ”

Zhou Yi is based on the fact that everything in the universe is always changing, and the whole universe is a moving universe, and everything is a moving thing.

The universe is a changing universe, the elements of all things are yin and yang, and the yin and yang of the blind hail follow certain principles on the basis of Tai Chi as the origin of all things.

Zhou Yi's cosmology, the universe as a whole is destroyed and bent, changing non-stop, and the cycle is endless. The universe as a whole is a moving universe, and all living things, all things in the universe, are one life.

The cosmology of traditional Chinese culture is the unity of heaven and man.

Chinese culture attaches more importance to the harmony and unity between man and nature, while Western culture emphasizes that man must conquer and transform nature in order to survive and develop.

The 5,000-year-old Chinese civilization has put forward many different views on the world view, but behind the many different views, they all reflect a common world view - the relationship universe, the essence of Chinese culture is in the humanistic culture, and the core of the humanistic culture is the relationship culture. Chinese culture believes that everything in the world is the existence of relationships, and life in the world is a process of relationship evolution, and everyone is born because of relationships, developed because of the strengthening of relationships, and died because of the termination of relationships.

Heaven and man are one, survival of the fittest!

The five elements of yin and yang are the classic philosophical summary of countless predecessors in China since ancient times after thousands of years of diligent exploration, and people in ancient times gradually had a deep understanding of the universe through production practice, from dividing specific things into yin and yang, to further discovering the mutual transformation of yin and yang, to distinguishing the state of yin and yang in the transformation process, and gradually realizing the five elements. <>

The sages found that in the whole process of yin and yang mutual movement and transformation, there are two trends and four stages, two equilibrium points and two limit points, and at most five different states of yin and yang contrast. One is the state of weak yin and strong yang; the second is the state of weak yang and prosperous yin; the third is the polar positive state; the fourth is the polar cathode state; The fifth is the state of yin and yang balance. <>

In a complete process of yin and yang interaction, it is composed of two opposing dynamic tendencies: yin and yang, and yang and yin. In these two opposing trends, each achieves a yin and yang balance, with two equilibrium points and two limit points as the boundary punctuation, the quantitative change of yin and yang interaction can be divided into four stages, and the spring equinox and autumn equinox and winter solstice in the four seasons of the year are the most direct examples in life. The five elements describe the contrast of the yin and yang quantities in the immediate static state at any time in the whole process of yin and yang interaction and quantitative change, and the description of non-dynamic changes, and the comparison state of this quantity is described in only five situations at most, so the odd number "five" in the five elements is a fixed constant and will not be changed by human will.

In order to make it easy for ordinary people to understand and easy to use in life, the sages expressed the weak yin and yang state in the change of yin and yang in the image of "wood", the extreme yang state as the image of "fire", the yang weak and yin state as the image of "gold", the extreme yin state as the image of "water", and the yin and yang balance state as the image of "earth". <>

Metal, wood, water, fire, and earth are five different states of existence in the process of yin and yang movement and change, starting from the root that yin and yang interaction is the production of all things in the universe, all specific things in the universe are the embodiment of different yin and yang contrast states, and how many groups of different yin and yang quantitative change contrasts will naturally produce how many specific forms of things Since there are only five states of growth and change in the interaction of yin and yang, and everything is the product of yin and yang interaction, it is inevitable that it is included in the five elements. Behind the relationship between the five elements is the fundamental law of yin and yang, so it is also a universal law like yin and yang.