colors based on five elements of the yin and yang theory

COLORS BASED ON FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE YIN AND YANG THEORY FULL
COLORS BASED ON FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE YIN AND YANG THEORY SERIES

COLORS BASED ON FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE YIN AND YANG THEORY SERIES

The Qing period 清 (1644-1911) scholar Ma Guohan 馬國翰 has collected all surviving fragments of Zou Yan's writings, which are now included in the reprint series Yuhan shanfang jiyi shu 玉函山房輯佚書. The bibliography Yiwenzhi 藝文志 in the history Hanshu lists 68 books of Yin and Yang thinkers. While Yin and Yang corresponded to moon and sun, the Five Agents were seen as analogous to the five planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Their most important representatives were Zou Yan 鄒衍 and Zou Shi 鄒奭 with the lost writings Zouzi 鄒子, Zouzi zhongshi 鄒子終始, and Zoushizi 鄒奭子. The second tradition focused on the Five Agents and their meaning for society and history. The representative writings of this tradition are the chapter Yueling 月令 in the Confucian Classic Liji 禮記, and the twelve annals ( ji 紀) of the Lüshi chunqiu 呂氏春秋, as well as agricultural books. They explained the change of the seasons and gave support to the correlated agricultural activities. The one tradition connected the Yin and Yang cycle with the cycle of the Five Agents ( wuxing 五行).

Yin and Yang are subject to regular cycles.ĭuring the Warring States period, there were two different traditions of the Yin and Yang thinkers. In summer, the agent yang takes over and reaches its zenith with the beginning of autumn.

During winter, the agent yang is also hidden inside the roots of the plants, and starts growing in spring. In the field of phaenology, yin meant 'winter' or the agent that prevails in winter and forces all plants and small animals to hide deep inside the earth.

COLORS BASED ON FIVE ELEMENTS OF THE YIN AND YANG THEORY FULL

In the field of astronomy, the term yin meant the new moon, the term yang the full moon, but yin also denoted the moon itself, while yang was the sun. The terms yin and yang originally denoted the northern, shady side of a hill ( yin), and the southern, sunny side respectively ( yang), or the northern, sunny banks of a river ( yang) and the southern, shady banks of it. They observed the sky and created a calendar and so instructed the peasant people when to undertake their agricultural works. The imperial bibliography Yiwenzhi 藝文志 of the official dynastic history Hanshu 漢書 says that the Yin-Yang thinkers originated in astromical and astrological offices that were in mythological times occupied by Xi He 羲和. They had nevertheless made, he admitted, important contributions to the understanding of the astronomical phenomena and the annual seasons and the seasonal phaenology. The oldest description of the Yin and Yang school has been made by the Former Han period 前漢 (206 BCE-8 CE) historiographer Sima Tan 司馬談 who said in his essay Lun liujia yaozhi 論六家要旨 that the diviners of the Yin and Yang school tried to enchain and intimidate the stupid masses with their statements ( shi ren ju er duo wei 使人拘而多畏). The Yin and Yang school originated among the ancient astronomers that observed sun, moon and the constellations and also tried to predict the future from the movements of the starry sky. It is often mentioned side by side with the school of the Five Agents ( yinyang wuxing jia 陰陽五行家). The school of Yin 陰 and Yang 陽 thought was one of the philosophical schools of the Warring States period 戰國 (5th cent.-221 BCE).

Colors based on five elements of the yin and yang theory