Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

136 The Han Dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CEHan dynasty scholars were very much taken by the yin - yang theory. Withit, and the five phases theory, which we will look at next, they believedthey had found the secret to the ways in which everything in the universeworked. As a result we have a number of texts describing the yin - yangtheory and categorizing everything as yin or as yang. The rule of categorizationwas “ likeness. ” This means that yang is hot, so is the sun, so the sun isalso yang. Similarly, yin is cool, so is snow, so snow is yin. Elaborate listswere developed dividing all sorts of things into the categories of yin or yang.Yangheavenrounddaybig statesrulersuperiors/abovemanfatherolder brothernoblebroad - mindedgivingactivehotstraightbirthfullYinearthsquarenightsmall statesministerinferiors/belowwomansonyounger brotherbasenarrow - mindedreceivingpassivecoldcurveddeathemptyBy understanding which item is yin and which is yang, it should be possibleto figure out how things work and how they work together. Humanbeings can either follow the proper order and measure of yin and yangor run counter to them. If we act against the cycle of yin and yang anddisrupt its balance, we can, for example, become ill. Illness is the imbalanceof yin and yang in the body. The idea that we must all move with theuniversal actions of yin and yang is the reason that many of the yin - yangtexts are concerned about the actions of the ruler, the representative ofall human beings, whose actions, emotions, rituals, dress, and food mustfollow the proper measure appropriate to the movements of yin and yang.For example, rulers who go to war and bring death during the season ofyang, life and growth, are running contrary to the natural balance of thingsand will pay the price. Should the ruler not follow yin and yang properly,the seasons could be disrupted, the harvests fail, or the state be lost. Theyin - yang theorists often argued that it was extravagance and imbalance that