Good Confucianism book (pdf) - Department of Physics

The Han Dynasty, 206 BCE–220 CE 139The passage continues with some fantastical comparisons of the humanbody to the sun and moon and other natural phenomena and concludes bysaying that human beings have a “ mind/heart that expresses sadness, happiness,joy, and anger – the same class of feelings as the spirit - like feelingsof Heaven. ” 16It is the responsibility of human beings, in particular of the ruler, tomake sure that actions and emotions match the cycles of Heaven andearth. The ruler has the choice of Heaven and is the Son of Heaven. As therepresentative of human beings, the ruler ’ s moods and actions are reflectedin the moods and actions of Heaven. So, for example, the ruler must notbe angry or carry out executions in the spring as this works against thegrowing yang of Heaven. If the ruler runs counter to the cycles of Heaven,Heaven will send signs and omens like floods, famines, or three - headedcalves to show its displeasure.The Five Phases 17The New Text school used a second theory in concert with the yin - yangtheory to map the movements of human beings and the universe. This is thefive phases theory, which is based on five basic elements that move fromone phase to another. These are wood, fire, metal, water, and earth. Eachpresides over a season, changing, as yin and yang do, from growth to decayin the cycle of a year. They fit with the movements of yin and yang. Woodovercomes earth, metal overcomes wood, fire overcomes metal, water overcomesfire. Like the yin and the yang, the five phases move through a cycle:wood east green growing yangfire south red full yangmetal west white growing yinwater north black full yinearth center yellow 18The five phases correspond to five colors, the five notes of the pentatonicscale, five organs of the human body (liver, heart, spleen, kidneys, andlungs), five tastes (sweet, salty, bitter, spicy, and sour), and so on. Lookingback in history, each dynasty was assigned one of the phases, along witha color, direction, and so on. As one dynasty fell to another, this wasexplained by the movement from one phase to another.Just as the ruler had to reflect the movements of yin and yang, so toowas he required to align himself with the movements of the five phases.The colors of the clothes he wore, the food that he ate, the direction of thepalace rooms he lived in were all set out according to yin, yang, and the