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.