老子：负阴抱阳 Laozi: Yin and Yang as Vital Forces

老子认为‘道’是所有个别原理中的最高原理。至今，华人心理文化的深层结构中还可以寻找到这种道的功能的踪迹与影响。老子说：

‘道生一， 一生二，二生三，三生万物。

万物负阴而抱阳，冲气以为和。’

一是指天与地最终来源的整体。二是指阴与阳这两种主要力量。三是指阴阳相交之后所形成的调和之气。

气有三种。第一种阴气强于阳气，而第二种气刚好相反，阳气压倒阴气。第三种是调和之气，阴阳调和而形成之气。

在道与阴阳的概念中含有自然的概念。自然有着自然而然之意，也有自发性和自我显露的意思。自然就是‘自我如此’或‘我或其他物体之本然’。这个概念把世间自然形态与人类在其间的活动联系起来。自然并不把自然规律当成严谨而先决来看待，而是当成自然运作。

自然的秩序被看成是无目的、已经决定了的，因为自然就是物体本来的状态，而不是与某种神灵的关系。这就给予由个别物体构成的自然世界天生的价值。

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Lao Zi thinks that the Dao is the supreme principle of all individual principles. The function of the Dao in general can still find its traces and influences deep in the psycho-cultural structure of the Chinese people today. He says:

‘The Dao produces the One. The One turns into Two. The Two gives rise to the Three. The Three brings forth the myriad of things.

The myriad things contain Yin and Yan as vital forces, which achieve harmony through their interactions.’

The One refers to the Whole as the ultimate origin of heaven and earth. The Two refers to two vital forces known as Yin and Yang. The Three is usually supposed to be a harmonised type of Qi which results from the interactions between Yin and Yang.

There are three type of Qi. The first type of Yin Qi overwhelms the Yang Qi, whereas the opposite happens in the second type of Yang Qi, i.e. Yang Qi overwhelms Yin Qi. The third type of Qi is a well-balanced one, both the Yin Qi and Yang Qi form into a harmonious realm.

In the ideas of the dao, the One, and Yinyang lies the idea of Ziran, most often translated as ‘naturalness’, but also containing the ideas of spontaneity and self-unfolding. Ziran basically means ‘self-so’ or ‘the self (or any other object) as it is naturally.’ This concept is most often associated with the natural ways in which the world and the people within it move. Ziran is considered not a law in the strict and determinative sense, but as the way things operate naturally.

This natural order is to be considered non-teleological and determined, for Ziran is the way things are in and of themselves, not as they are in relationship to something divine beyond themselves. This gives inherent worth to the cosmos as they conform to the natural ways in which they are constituted.

子曰：一阴一阳之谓道 Confucius Said: The Successive Movement of the Inactive Yin and Active Yang….

我们可以很肯定地说阴阳概念是中国伟大哲理流派之一儒学的意识基础。

阴阳家虽然可能是最先讲述阴阳关心，而《道德经》是最先明确地说明道与阴阳协调的哲学阐述。

可是在中国历史里，并没有有关孔子明确阐述阴阳学说的记录，就算是《论语》里也没有提到阴阳。

最早采用道家意识形态的儒家学者可能是荀子（公元前312–230），因为他以天地与阴阳的合一为宇宙之开始。荀子以道家的最高与永恒的道之理来融入儒家所关心的政治行动与伦理教化。

同时期的其他学者亦通过《易经•十翼》来解释阴阳思想。就如庄子所说，‘《易》以道阴阳’，《易经》基本上是以阴阳为基础的二元系统。

虽然我们并不知道《易经•十翼》的作者是谁，《易经》还是被认为是儒学的代表作。事实上，它一直被看作是五经之首。历来，《易经》都被用来理解儒家伦理与哲学学说的途径。

所以，在《易经》中，孔子还是被引用来子曰：‘一阴一阳之谓道。’

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One may confidently say that the concept of yinyang forms the metaphysical foundation for Confucianism, one of the great philosophical schools of China.

While the philosophers of the Yinyang School may be the ones who first started to elaborate on the yinyang relationships, the first philosophical work which spoke explicitly about Dao and the harmony between yin and yang was the Daode Jing.

However, there is no written record in Chinese history to show that Confucius had elaborated in certain terms on yinyang, and even in the Analects of Confucius there is no mention of yinyang.

Probably the first known Confucian to adopt Daoist metaphysics was Xunzi (312–230 BC), as he made the unity of nature (tiandi) and yinyang the origin of the universe. Xunzi amalgamated the Daoist metaphysics of a supreme and constant rule of Dao with his Confucian concern for political action and ethical education.

Other intellectuals of this period such as the authors of the Ten Appendixes to the Yijing did much the same thing. As observed by Zhuangzi, ‘The aim of Yijing is to explain yin and yang’, at the root of the Yijing is the binary system known as yin and yang.

While the actual authors of the Ten Appendixes of Yijing were not known, Yijing has been regarded as the representative work of Confucianism. In fact, the Yijing is considered to be the best of the five classics of Confucianism. Historically, the Yijing has been viewed through the lens of Confucian ethical and philosophical commentary.

Therefore one can always quote Confucius to have said in Yijing, ‘The successive movement of the inactive yin and active yang operations constitutes what is called the Dao.’

华人的阴阳概念 The Chinese yinyang Concept

阴阳概念可以说是华人的基本世界观。

阴与阳代表宇宙所能找到的所有的对立事务的原则。阳代表雄、太阳、创造、热、光、天、支配等理则，阴代表雌、月亮、完成、冷、暗、地、顺从等理则。

天以阳理创造事物之理念，地以阴理产生事物之形态，天以阳理造之，地以阴理成之，以此类之。

阴中生阳与阳中生阴的过程周期性与不断地发生，以致没有一种理则能压倒或支配另一种理则。我们所体验到的对立 -- 健康与病痛、富贵与贫穷、权利与顺从 -- 都可以一种理则暂时支配另一理则作为参照来加以解释。既然没有一种理则可以永远占有支配地位，就是说所有的状况都会变换为其对立的状况。

阴与阳的周期性，宇宙中对立力量的转变，就意识着几样东西：

第一，所有事物周期性地逆转为他们的对立事务；第二，所有的现象都具有其对立现象的种子，就是说，病痛含有潜在的健康，健康潜伏着病痛，富贵会导致贫困，等等；第三，由于一个理则会导致另一个理则，虽然对立理则并没有显现，没有一种现象可以避免对立现象。一个人不可能永远健康，因为健康本身就含有其对立的理则，那就是病痛。

所以，阴阳学说中的各种力量并不是敌对的关系。了解这点是很重要的。

它和西方的‘二元论’是不同的。‘二元论’认为世界是由本质上分开的与敌对的力量所构成，例如：真与假、好与坏。

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The concept of yin and yang is often said to be fundamental to the Chinese view of the world.

The yin and yang represent all the opposite principles one finds in the universe. Under yang are the principles of maleness, the sun, creation, heat, light, heaven, dominance, and so on, and under yin are the principles of femaleness, the moon, completion, cold, darkness, material forms, submission, and so on.

Heaven creates the ideas of things under yang, the earth produces their material forms under yin, and vice versa; creation occurs under the principle of yang, the completion of the created thing occurs under yin, and 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, all phenomena change into their opposites in an eternal cycle of reversal. Second, 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.

It is therefore essential to understand that the nature of such forces in yin-yang thought is not an antagonistic relationship.

It is different from the western ‘dualism’, an assertion that the world is comprised of forces that are intrinsically separate and hostile, like ‘truth and falsehood’, or ‘good and evil’.

二元对立与二元论 Binary Opposition and Dualism

二元对立是用来表示一对相反的东西。在西方，这个观念可以追溯到西方传统信念，认为现实的本质是二元的。希腊哲学家柏拉图 (公元前429-347) 的哲学可能是最早的有系统的二元概念。

在柏拉图的哲学中，存在着的最终的二元是永恒存在与变易、心与物、物体与灵魂。柏拉图相信真正的本质不是物体而是理念，物体只是理念的非完美摹本。这些理念不但构成世界，也使这个世界可被理解。因为理念是理解的根据，学者在理解的过程中一定要了解理念。

笛卡尔开始了现代版的二元论。笛卡尔相信存在着两种物质：物体或身体的主要性质是空间的伸延，而心灵的主要性质是思考。笛卡尔声称思考的心灵与伸延的身体分开存在。所以，心灵的本质是思想，是与身体不同的物质。

笛卡尔的二元论使他很难阐述心物如何关联及互相沟通。以柏拉图而言，他认为灵魂在持续的轮回或转生的过程中先存在于物体，并于物体消灭后继续存在。对笛卡尔来说，心灵如何与物体相互联系的问题实际上无法解决，因为他假设心物代表两种不同的物质。

两种对立力量间的挣扎看来是西方社会的基本错觉。在西方历史里的矛盾纠纷中，它一直被用来当作消灭‘他者’的凭据。

我们可以这么说，如果西方今日用相同的托词来解决世界纠纷，这个世界会变得更加危险。

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Binary opposition is a term used to mean a pair of opposites. In the West, the idea can be traced to the traditional believe in western philosophy that reality is essentially dual in nature. Probably the earliest systematic concept of dualism stems from the philosophy of the Greek philosopher Plato (429-347 BC).

In Plato’s philosophy there is an ultimate dualism of being and becoming, of ideas and matter, of body and soul. Plato believed that the true substances are not physical bodies, but the eternal Forms of which bodies are imperfect copies. These Forms not only make the world possible, they also make it intelligible. Because Forms are the grounds of intelligibility, they are what the intellect must grasp in the process of understanding.

Descartes originated the more modern versions of dualism. Descartes believed that there were two different kinds of substance: matter or body, of which the essential property is that it is spatially extended; and mind, of which the essential property is that it thinks. Descartes argues that the mind, a thinking thing, can exist apart from its extended body. And therefore, the mind is a substance distinct from the body, a substance whose essence is thought.

Descartes’ dualism made it difficult for him to describe how the body and mind could relate and interact upon each other. In the case of Plato, he argued that the soul both pre-existed and survived the body, going through a continual process of reincarnation or "transmigration". For Descartes, the question of how the mind interacts with the body was virtually unsolvable because he assumed that mind and body represent two distinct substances.

The struggle between the two competing forces seems to be the standard delusion of the Western society and it has been used as the justification for the demonization of the "other" in almost all conflicts in their history.

One can assume that the world is getting more dangerous if the West today use the same justification to resolve war conflicts.