# Yinyang Cosmology and the Baha'i Faith

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> Source: Bahá'í Library Online (bahai-library.com), curated by Jonah Winters. Used by permission of the curator. Original citation: Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew, Yinyang Cosmology and the Baha'i Faith, bahai-library.com.
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> 
> Yínyáng Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith 1
> 
> Phyllis Ghim-Lian Chew
> 
> Abstract
> 
> The yín-yáng concepts are a pivotal theory in traditional
> Chinese thought, influencing many aspects of Chinese
> civilization, government, architecture, personal relationships
> and ethics. The literacies of this paradigm has astounding
> similarities with the literacies of the Bahá’í faith, especially with
> regards to the origin of matter, historical perspective, gender
> relationships and practices related to health and healing. This
> paper will set out to discuss the impact of these similarities in
> the modern encounter between the Chinese culture and the
> Bahá’í Faith.
> 
> Introduction
> From its earliest expression in myth, legend and verse over
> 3,000 years ago, the yínyáng (阴阳) cosmology has remained
> central to the Chinese way of viewing things and can be said to
> be the primal polarity in Chinese thought. Cosmology here
> refers to a framework of ideas and beliefs through which an
> individual, group or culture interprets the world and interacts
> with it. It is defined in this paper as a “worldview” or a network
> of presuppositions which may or may not be verified by the
> procedures of natural science but in terms of which every
> believer’s experience is interpreted and understood. Yínyáng is
> able to account for many natural phenomena and while the
> cosmic individual, Chinese or otherwise, does not “control”
> nature, his or her knowledge of how to “align” the human with
> the natural will immeasurably enlarge the ability to control his
> or her life processes.
> 2                                       Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> Yínyáng cosmology is essentially “Chinese” as it is a concept
> which informs many branches of classical Chinese science and
> philosophy and has penetrated deeply into the popular culture
> and dominated the language of medicine, geomancy, and other
> accepted “sciences” without major challenge. The earliest
> Chinese characters for yín and yáng are found in inscriptions
> made on “oracle bones,” which are skeletal remains of various
> animals used in ancient Chinese divination practices as early as
> the 14th century BCE. Its origin is not linked to the vision of
> any single individual or to any single text and remains a matter
> of great dispute. Its earliest literary reference is in the Yì Jíng
> (Book of Changes c.700 BCE), which is constructed around sixty-
> four hexagrams (gua 卦 word), each of which is made of six
> parallel broken or unbroken line segments (yao 爻).2 Here, yín
> and yáng are represented by broken and solid lines. Some tri-
> grams are more yáng: ☰ is heavily yáng, while ☷ is heavily yín.
> Yín and yáng, which literally means the polar opposites of
> “shadow” and “light,” is often symbolized by the following
> symbol: Yáng is the white side with the black dot on it, and yín
> is the black side with the white dot on it.
> 
> The Yín-Yáng symbol
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                           3
> 
> Like its cosmology, no one knows the person who created
> this symbol. What is important is to understand the textual and
> visual history behind this symbol. Here, a circle is drawn to
> uphold the idea of a timeless creation with no beginning and
> end. The curve of yín and yáng is a little like a kaleidoscope and
> therefore implies that they are mutually arising, interdependent
> and continuously transforming one into the other. Notice too
> that there are smaller circles nested within each half of the
> symbol and this is a reminder once again of the interdependent
> nature of the black/white opposites and the fact that relative
> existence is in constant flux and change. The smaller circles also
> symbolize the possibility that yínyáng can be divided into
> further yínyáng ad infinitum. In other words, within each yín
> and yáng category, another yín and yáng category can be
> distinguished.
> The next section will further elaborate on the ideas behind
> this symbol though four conceptual lenses, namely, relativity,
> unity, complementarity, and balance.
> 
> Relativity
> The first notion of yínyáng is its relativity, which in essence,
> expresses a relationship that one notion is the opposite of the
> other. For example, the son is both yín and yáng; yín because he
> is believed to be inferior to his father and yáng because he is
> believed to be superior as male. In other words, nothing is
> absolute — only more yín compared to something, or more yáng
> compared to something else. The Chang Huang T’u-shu pien
> (图书编), an encyclopedia edited by Zhang Huang 章潢 （1527-
> 1608） in Ming Dynasty (Forke, The World Conception 214–15),
> describes it in the following manner:
> 
> Heaven and the sun, spring and summer, east and south
> are yáng, the earth and the moon, autumn and winter,
> west and north are yín. But during the day heaven and
> earth are both yáng, and at night they are both yín. In
> spring and summer, heaven and earth, the sun and the
> moon are all yáng, in autumn and winter they are all
> yín. In the east and the south the four seasons are
> 4                                      Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> always yáng, in the west and the north they are always
> yín. The left hand is yáng, the right one yín, in this no
> change is possible, but raise both hands, then they are
> both yáng, and put them down, and they are both yín,
> and no matter whether you raise them or put them
> down, when they are hot they are both yáng, and when
> they are cold they are both yín.
> 
> Therefore, although it is possible to distinguish yín and yáng,
> it is impossible to separate them since they depend on each
> other for definition. For example, one cannot speak of
> temperature apart from its yín and yáng aspects — for example,
> dark and light, female and male, low and high, cold and hot,
> hotness and coldness, water and fire, etc. They are
> complementary forces (hidden, feminine) and seen (manifest,
> masculine), that combine to form a greater whole as part of a
> dynamic system. Each side always contains the others just as
> night contains day, or a mother “contains” the infant that she
> will, in time, give birth to. They give rise to each and in turn
> affect each other.
> This notion of relativity as suggested throughout the Dao-te
> ching (c. 450 BC), a small (about 5,000 characters) but
> extraordinary work on Chinese life and culture written by one
> called Lao-tze (“old man” or “teacher”):
> 
> For what is and what is not beget each other;
> Difficult and easy complete each other;
> Long and short show each other;
> High and low place each other;
> Noise and sound harmonize each other;
> Before and behind follow each other.
> — Dao-te ching, (Maurer) ch. 2.
> 
> Su Shih (苏轼 960–1279 CE), a scholar from the Sung dynasty
> indicates the importance of perspectives. When there is a shift
> in our position, the objects appear to change. Therefore, we can
> no longer be so naive as to assume that what we see constitutes
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                              5
> 
> all there is to see. As in much Chinese classical poetry, the
> notion of relativity is subtly emphasized:
> 
> From the side, a whole range; from the end, a single
> peak:
> Far, near, high, low no two parts alike. Why can’t I tell
> the true shape of Lu Shan?
> Because I myself am in the mountain.
> — Watson, Selection from a Sung Dynasty, 101
> 
> This principle of perspective or relativity is remarkably in tune
> with modern science and eplains why Yínyáng cosmology
> continues to hold relevance today.
> 
> Unity
> The second characteristic to note in the discussion of the
> yínyáng correlates is their essential unity. Yínyáng is a
> “completing” rather than a “competing” theory. For example,
> “heads” and “tails” are different sides of the coin. The circle is
> like the coin and the coin contains the two halves and it is what
> the two sides have in common that makes them the same. In
> order to get heads or tails, one may flip the coin but whether
> the coin lands on its head or tail, in terms of the essence of the
> coin, the answer will always be the same. Hence, instead of the
> principle of duality and opposition so common in western
> philosophy, there are instead the theories of succession, e.g.,
> day follows night, night follows day, small becomes big, big
> becomes small, slow changes to fast, fast slackens to slow, what
> goes up comes down and vice versa. No entity can ever be
> isolated from its relationship to the center of our metaphorical
> “coin,” and if it is detached from the center, it will cease to exist.
> This center which it originates from is commonly known as
> the Dao (道), the life-giving power or principle. It is called
> Brahman in Hinduism, Dharmakaya in Buddhism, and Dao in
> Daoism. Because it transcends all concepts and categories, the
> Buddhist also calls it Tathata or Suchness. This idea may also
> have been borrowed by the Greek philosophers of the Ionian
> 6                                      Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> School (c. 585–540 BCE) e.g., Thales, Anaximander, and
> Anaximenes, who argued that orderliness could only be
> explained though the existence of a single unifyíng substance
> which were in control of all the parts. This also bears some
> similarity to the Bahá’í idea of the “first will” or what the
> ancient philosophers termed the “First Mind.” According to
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá, the first will is an emanation which is “not limited
> by time or place; it is without beginning or end — beginning and
> end in relation to God are one” [SAQ 203].
> Zhuangzi (庄子), an influential Chinese philosopher in the 4th
> century BCE explains that the manifestation of this first
> principle in each created being is called te (virtue 德) and that
> Dao and te are actually of one essence, the former being the
> universal essence, and the latter the share of the former
> deposited in every individual being, what in most world
> religions is referred to as “God” and “the soul.” In short, Daoist
> philosophy is to “return to Dao,” namely to align or balance
> oneself to the “Primeval One,” the “Divine Intelligence,” or the
> “Source” of all things, which most religions call “heaven” or
> “the afterlife.” As Zhuangzi puts it:
> 
> In the beginning there was non-being. It had neither
> being nor name. The One originates from it: it has
> oneness but not yet physical form. When things obtain
> it and come into existence, that is called virtue (德)
> (which gives their individual character). That which is
> formless is divided into yín and yáng and from the
> beginning going on without interruption is called
> destiny (ming 命). Through movement and rest, it
> produces all things. When things are produced in
> accordance with the principle (li 理) there is a physical
> form, and when these follow their own specific
> principles, that is what we call “nature”. By cultivating
> one’s nature one will return to virtue. When virtue is
> perfect, one will be one with the beginning. Being one
> with the beginning, one becomes vacuous (thus,
> receptive to all) and being vacuous, one becomes great.
> One will then be united with the sound and breath of
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                              7
> 
> things. When one is united with the breath of things,
> one is then united with the universe. (Chan, Sourcebook 202)
> 
> Similarly, in Bahá’í cosmology, form and substance arise
> simultaneously and they are interdependent:
> 
> They have said that the potentialities (qábiliyyát) and
> the recipients of the potentialities (maqbúlát) came into
> being and were created simultaneously. For example, it
> has been stated that all things are composed of two
> elements: the “Fashioner” (qábil) and the “Fashioned
> (maqbúl). By “Fashioned” is meant substance (mádda)
> and primary matter (huyúlá), and by Fashioner is meant
> form and shape, which confines and limits the primary
> matter from its state of indefiniteness and freedom to
> the courtyard of limitation and definite form.
> (Bahá’u’lláh, Makátíb 2:35; provisional translation by Moojan
> Momen and quoted in Brown 26)
> 
> This “life-giving force” is given the actual name of “God” or
> “Creator” in prophetic religions such as Islam and Christianity.
> In the Bahá’í faith, it is stated that “the Word of God ... is the
> Cause of the entire creation, while all else besides His Word are
> but the creatures and the effects thereof” [TB 140]. For
> Zhuangzi, the Dao is the all-pervading principle that exists prior
> to the existence of the universe, and it is to be found in
> everything, no matter how trivial or base (Chuang-tzu, chapter 2).
> 
> Complementarity
> Complementarity refers to the phenomena that in any yín
> phenomenon there is a little yáng; and in every yáng
> phenomenon there is a little yín. In other words, the night is
> never completely dark because there is always some yáng light
> (from the moon, stars, fireflies), and the yáng day has some
> darkness (shadows for instance). Yín and yáng transform each
> other: like an undertow in the ocean, every advance is
> complemented by a retreat, and every rise transforms into a fall.
> It is an irretrievable inter-relatedness. Thus, a seed will sprout
> from the earth and grow upwards towards the sky — an
> 8                                      Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> intrinsically yáng movement. Then, when it reaches its full
> potential height, it will fall.
> We see this same idea illustrated from the Ts’an-t’ung-chi3
> (参同契) a classic by Wei Boyang 魏伯阳 from the Eastern Han
> Dynasty (147–167 AD):
> 
> Within light there is darkness, but do not try to
> understand that darkness.
> Within darkness there is light, but do not look for that
> light.
> Light and darkness are a pair, like the foot before and
> the foot behind in walking.
> Each thing has its own intrinsic value and is related to
> everything else in function and position.
> 
> This intricate complementarity embodies a belief that
> everything, however small, in some sense reflects it. Just as the
> cells of the body imply the whole, so every part of creation
> implies the cosmos.
> In reference to animals and vegetables, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá writes:
> “... the animal, as to its body, is made up of the same
> constituent elements as man” [SWAB 153]. “All the elements that
> are combined in man exist also in vegetables” [SAQ 258]. In
> addition, quoting Imam Ali, Bahá’u’lláh writes “Dost thou
> reckon thyself only a puny form/When within thee the universe
> is folded?” [SVFV 34].
> The essence of this inter-relatedness reinforces once again the
> idea of the cosmic whole as interdependent and inseparable. A
> famous poem by Zháng Zǎi (张载, 1020–77 CE), a Neo-
> Confucian philosopher and cosmologist, writes:
> 
> Heaven is my father and Earth is my mother, and even
> such a small creature as I find an intimate place in their
> midst. Therefore that which fills the universe I regard as
> my body and that which directs the universe I consider
> as my nature. All people are my brothers and sisters,
> and all things are my companions. (Chan, Sourcebook 497)
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                            9
> 
> Similarly, the Bahá’í scriptures points to the significance of
> complementarity. Members and elements are interconnected and
> influence one another spiritually and materially:
> 
> This limitless universe is like the human body, all the
> members of which are connected and linked with one
> another with the greatest strength.... In the same way,
> the parts of this infinite universe have their members
> and elements connected with one another, and influence
> one another spiritually and materially. [SAQ 245–46]
> 
> Balance
> Balance is needed if complementary opposites are to interact
> elegantly. A deficiency of one aspect implies an excess of the
> other. Thus, if yín is excessive, the yáng will be too weak. For
> example, summer is considered as yáng and isolated as such; it
> may seem “excessive,” but not so if the whole of the four
> seasons are taken into account. Another example is that if it is
> too hot, then there is not enough coolness and vice versa. If the
> temperature is neither too cold nor too hot, then both cold and
> hot aspects are mutually controlled and held in check. In human
> relationships as in a marriage, one can say that here the extent
> to which one partner can be aggressive depends on the extent to
> which the other is passive. They exert mutual control over each
> other. Thus, in a relationship in which yín and yáng are
> unbalanced for a long periods of time, the resulting
> transformation may be drastic.
> Western philosophies have tended to be lopsided by
> glorifying one pole at the expense of the other, e.g., the mind is
> considered to be better than the body, and logic preferable to
> intuition, the yín–yáng paradigm emphasizes the equality of
> proportions. When Confucius (551–479 BCE) wrote The
> Doctrine of the Mean (中庸), he meant that both excess and
> inadequacy were extremes and that only by understanding the
> “Mean” and holding on to it could harmony be achieved
> [Doctrine of the Mean, ch. 27]. Hence for Confucius, “To go beyond
> is as wrong as to fall short” [Analects, 11:15]. Likewise,
> Bahá’u’lláh said that “In all matters moderation is desirable. If a
> thing is carried to excess, it will prove a source of evil” [TB 69].
> 10                                     Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> This notion of “balance” has significant implications on
> moral values and has been used to explain the relationship
> between good and evil. For Zhuangzi, nothing can be said to be
> absolutely right (e.g., the notions of right and wrong do not
> exist, since right is right only because of the existence of
> wrong).4 Zhuangzi believes that conflict arises when a person
> departs from Dao and tries to act contrary to nature. This
> concept of balancing both yín and yáng forces and of being at
> one with Dao has been used to teach morality throughout
> Chinese history. Lao-tzu illustrates this paradox within a set of
> correspondences:
> 
> On tiptoe you don’t stand.
> Astride you don’t walk.
> Showing yourself, you don’t shine,
> Asserting yourself, you don’t show,
> Boasting yourself won’t get you credit.
> Vaunting yourself won’t let you endure.
> In Dao, these things are called
> Tumors and dregs, which all things abhor.
> Whoever has Dao does not dwell on them.
> — Dao-te ching, ch. 24
> 
> There is, however, a distinct difference between the concept
> of balance in the Chinese psyche and that of other prophetic
> religions with a holy book. While keeping to the mean is
> imperative for harmony, what exactly is the mean with regards
> to moral and social behavior is not made explicit, since it is the
> theoretical mean which is referred to. For other religionists such
> as the Bahá’ís, the book itself is “the unerring Balance
> established amongst men” [KA 22].
> With these four essential characteristics of Yínyáng
> cosmology in hand, I will now proceed to a preliminary
> exploration of four areas, namely, the origin of creation,
> historical perspective, the relationship of man and woman, and
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                         11
> 
> health and healing, and examine their remarkable relationship
> across time and space with the Bahá’í Faith.
> 
> The Dao of Creation
> The idea of causation so central to Western thinking is
> almost entirely absent in Chinese thought. Indeed, no Chinese
> thinker who discusses the subject admits the possibility of an
> initial conscious act of creation since in Yínyáng cosmology
> things were connected, rather than caused, and things influence
> each other not mechanically but by a kind of induction. Hence,
> unlike the ancient Greeks who believed that the essence of
> knowledge is to grasp the “why” or to prove the existence of the
> primary cause, the Chinese were most interested in
> understanding the interrelationships. As Ronan and Needham
> argues:
> 
> The fundamental difference was that in Europe, there
> was a need to think of God as the creator or the prime
> mover behind the machine. Not the Chinese. To them
> the parts of a living body as the universe could account
> for the observed phenomena by a kind of will: co-
> operation of the component part was spontaneous,
> even involuntary and this alone was sufficient. There
> were thus two traditions of the universe and each went
> their separate ways. [Ronan and Needham 163]
> 
> The word “cause” implies a direct dependency with the
> effects in much the same way that attributes of knowledge
> requires the existence of objects of knowledge. Similarly, the
> term “Creator” assumes its counterpart, the created, in order to
> be comprehensible. There was therefore no reason to debate on
> cause and effect since this was already implied or understood.
> As the first chapter of the Dao-te ching reiterates:
> 
> If Dao can be Daoed, it is not Dao.
> If its name can be named, it is not its name.
> Has no name: precedes heaven and earth;
> Has a name: mother of ten thousand things
> 12                                     Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> The First Cause or the Creator is not the focus here and only a
> description rather than an exploration will suffice. There is an
> implied acceptance that it exists, and no effort is made to
> postulate the “hows” or “whys” of its existence. Like other
> world religions, the Bahá’í Faith, explicitly indicates that while
> God is the creator of all things, but unlike them, it elaborates
> that God exists, only outside the order of His creation and like
> the Dao, is completely unknowable:
> 
> Lauded by Thy Name, O Lord my God! I testify that
> Thou wast a hidden Treasure wrapped within Thine
> immemorial Being and an impenetrable Mystery
> enshrined in Thine own Essence. Wishing to reveal
> Thyself, Thou didst call into being the Greater and the
> Lesser Worlds. [PM 48–49]
> 
> In the above, the Greater and Lesser world may be interpreted
> as the hereafter and this world. It follows then in Bahá’í
> cosmology that without the limiting constraints of time and
> space, “the latter world hath neither beginning nor end” [TB 187],
> something not incomparable with Zhuangzi’s notion of heaven
> as “one of ceaseless revolution, without beginning or end” [Fung
> 133].
> 
> Nevertheless, while not embroiled in the “who’s who” of
> creation, China’s ancient philosophers were keen to understand
> the hows. They postulated the origin of the cosmos as a series of
> progressions from the T’ai Chi (太极” the one great ultimate”)
> to the two principles Yínyáng ; the three sources; heaven, earth
> and humankind; and the five elements represented symbolically
> by wood 木, fire 火, earth 土, metal 金, and water 水.5 The Wu
> Xing (五行 “five phases”) is a fivefold conceptual scheme used
> in many fields of Chinese thought both past and present such as
> feng shui (风水, astrology, traditional Chinese medicine, music,
> military strategy and martial arts. While the ancient Greeks had
> recognized the five elements as early as the 6th century BCE,
> they looked on them as substances or natural qualities, unlike
> the Chinese which viewed them as “process” or “change.”
> Interestingly, Bahá’u’lláh [TB 140] also explains the cause of
> creation through “two poles” — the active force and its
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                           13
> 
> recipient or the “even” and the “odd,” which by their
> interaction generates a “heat” or life-giving energy that creates
> and orders the innumerous beings in the universe:
> 
> The world of existence came into being through the
> heat generated from the interaction between the active
> force and that which is its recipient. These two are the
> same, yet they are different.”
> 
> Bahá’u’lláh calls that which first results from the active force
> and its recipient prior to the generation of the world, al-failayn,
> the twin active agents, and al-munfa’il, the twin passive agents,
> and affirms that they “are indeed created through the irresistible
> Word of God” [TB 140]. In other tablets, He identifies them
> with the four elements of “fire,” “air,” “water,” and “earth,”
> [Brown 28, 35–36], two of which are identified as active while the
> other two as passive, something not quite unlike the Chinese
> “five phases.”
> These four elements are described in the Lawh-i-Ayiy-i-Nur in
> the following manner:
> 
> Know ye that the first tokens that emanated from the
> pre- existent Cause in the worlds of creation are the
> four elements: fire, air, water, and earth... Then the
> natures (ustuqusat) of these four appeared: heat,
> moisture, cold and dryness — those same qualities that
> ye both reckon and know. When the elements interacted
> and joined with one another, two pillars became evident
> for each one: for fire, heat and dryness, and likewise for
> the remaining three in accordance with these rules, as ye
> are aware. By them God created all that there is in the
> worlds of creation, whether of the higher or lower
> realms. In whatsoever things these natures came into
> equilibrium that thing endured the passage of time, as
> ye behold with the sun and the moon; and in whatsoever
> thing these natures came not into balance, that thing
> passed quickly into extinction, even as ye observe to be
> the case with the creatures of the lower worlds. [Brown
> 35–36]
> 14                                     Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> This quotation suggests, in synchrony with Chinese beliefs,
> the gradual development of life on earth.6 The Yì Jíng 易经, for
> instance, views civilization as a systematic and progressive
> development from simple undifferentiated beginnings towards a
> complex structure, and the development of the individual as
> following a parallel course from ignorance to enlightenment and
> from an unwitting identity with Dao to knowing the Dao. There
> is a traditional story accounting for the gradual creation of the
> universe and although caution must be exercised in putting
> implicit faith in such traditional stories, I am including the
> following for its popular anecdotal value:
> 
> A period of 2,267,000 years was computed to have
> intervened from the beginning of heaven and earth to
> the year 480 BC. This period was divided into great
> sections, each with its own characteristics. Proceeding
> that period were countless ages of one unbroken black
> night and the profoundest gloom. The universe
> consisted of Breath or Gas which was a homogeneous
> unit without form. Out of this limitless chaos came the
> Great Limit, or Beginning. Then the grosser particles of
> the universal gas fell down and became Earth, the finer
> ascended and became heaven. This was the beginning of
> heaven and earth. These two in the course of many
> thousands of years produced the four great Bodies —
> sun, moon, planets and constellation; and the four less
> Bodies — water, fire, earth and stone. Then was the
> eternal stillness terminated. The interactions of these
> various bodies produced transformations, first of a
> simple then of a more complex kind till they finally
> culminated in the reproduction of man.
> 
> Though man was the most intelligent of all beings,
> many ages elapsed before the earliest rudiments of
> civilization appeared. Some of the remote ancestors of
> the Chinese dwelt in caves, and wandered without fixed
> abode till one of their numbers devised a kind of
> dwelling, which put an end to cave homes. People of
> another tribe were naked, except for a small covering
> of plants before and another behind. One of them was a
> sage who cut wood into slices so thin that they could
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                         15
> 
> cover the body like fish scales and protect it from the
> winds and the frosts. He taught them to plait their hair
> so that the heaviest rain would drop off their
> head... [Ross 1–3]7
> 
> Such a mythological foundation enabled the Chinese to align
> relatively easily with later scientific theories such as Darwin’s
> theory of evolution or current concept of cosmology such as
> those expounded by Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time)
> where the universe was formed from the dust of space after a
> “Big Bang.” Abdu’l Bahá himself suggests that creation unfolds
> in a sequential gradual manner, tending towards higher and more
> complex forms:
> 
> That it is clear that original matter, which is in the
> embryonic state, and the mingled and composed
> elements which were its earliest forms, gradually grew
> and developed during many ages and cycles, passing
> from one shape and form to another, until they
> appeared in this perfection, this system, this
> organization and this establishment, though the
> supreme wisdom of God. [SAQ 182–83, 199]
> 
> The Dao of Historical Perspective
> With relativity as a key embedded principle, it is not
> surprising that religious conflict has been less of an issue in
> Chinese culture.8 According to a Chinese saying, “同源共流” —
> the presence of great religious teachers at different periods of
> history may be likened to tributaries branching out from the
> same river — they may start off at different sites and carry
> different names but the water which each receives is the same.
> Another Chinese four-word collocation, “殊途同归,” visualizes
> different paths towards the same destination. So too the
> classical quotation “致化归一，分教斯五.” written by 刘勰 (Liu
> Xie) in c.501-502 CE indicates that while the teaching is from
> the same source and for the same purpose, it may develop
> into different branches.9 In addition, The Chinese language
> shows that “religion” has been treated synonymously as
> “education,” and “religious personnel” as “teachers” of
> 16                                       Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> particular schools. Religion is called Chiao (教) or “teaching” or
> “Education,” (育), and the founders of religions as Chiao Tsu
> (主) or “Teaching Master.”
> Although there were occasional polemics and religious
> persecution in China’s long history, the traditional attitude was
> generally one of tolerance rather than dogmatic discrimination
> and ideological opposition, as the existence of strong Buddhist
> and Daoist elements in Neo-Confucianism make plain. If there
> was persecution, it was more often a result of a struggle for
> power rather than a denial of the essential truth of the other’s
> philosophical view.10 This relative tolerance is also a likely result
> of the perspective of time as relative, a sharp contrast to
> religions such as Christianity and Islam, where time “stops”
> around one revelatory event: the appearance of Christ and the
> revelation of the Quran. In other words, Chinese and Bahá’í
> cosmology adopts the “Eastern” view that time is cyclical with
> no beginning and end, a sharp contrast to “Western” dualist
> concept of time as historical with a start and end-point.
> This sense of wholeness has always led the Chinese mind
> towards the sense of relativity of particulars within the
> universal totality, and it was not surprising that the Chinese
> were among of the first to envisage a future society of world
> brotherhood and unity. Arnold Toynbee, a philosopher of
> history, included Chinese civilization among the five survivors
> of a number of ancient and medieval civilizations that once
> existed.11 Toynbee found that the Chinese civilization was the
> only one that aimed to eliminate war by establishing a world
> government of Great Unity (or Great Harmony) guided by the
> humanistic precepts of Confucius. While the search for an ideal
> Commonwealth has been a feature of other civilizations,12 it
> was only in China that it formed part of the psyche, not just of
> the scholar class but also of the common people.
> As early as 5th century BCE, the Chinese people have
> entertained the lofty thought of the “pacification of the world”
> (Ta-tung 天下大同), bringing to mind ‘Abdu’l-Bahá’s point that
> “[t]he most important principle of divine philosophy is the
> oneness of the world of humanity, the unity of mankind” [PUP
> 31]. Throughout the history of Chinese religion, such calls have
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                         17
> 
> come from its charismatic leaders and visionary prophets.
> Confucius dreamt of a united world, which he termed “the
> Great Unity” (大同 or ta t’ung). He urged his disciples to strive
> to produce a paradise covering the whole world. His ideas have
> been a motivating force to many Chinese legislators, scholars,
> and authors, especially to reformers and revolutionaries such as
> Dr. Sun Yat-sen, the founder of the Chinese Republic in 1912.
> Another influential philosopher who was fascinated with the
> utopian idea of the Great Unity was Mozi (墨子, 479–381 BCE),
> who developed a concept called “all-embracing love” (Chien-ai
> 兼爱), which emphasized a love of all humankind rather than
> just the love of the family. Then there was Mao Zedong, the
> founder-president of the Peoples’ Republic of China whose aim
> it was to establish the “Great Harmony” (世界大同). Although
> Mao was much influenced by Marx and Lenin early in life, much
> of his philosophy is interestingly, often in tune with the
> principles of traditional Chinese philosophy.13
> While this ideal, a united world characterized by world
> solidarity, has not been in keeping with actual practice, as
> reported in historical accounts of European traders and
> diplomats who were more often regarded as “barbarians” rather
> than as co-equals in the “middle kingdom,” such isolated
> individual accounts, most of which occurring in the time of
> Western imperial expansion, should be better interpreted in the
> context of the existing political–social situation and do not
> represent the essential spirit of Chinese thought.
> 
> The Dao of Man and Woman
> Yín is normally characterized as slow, soft, yielding, diffuse,
> cold, wet, and passive; and is associated with water, earth, the
> moon, femininity and the night. Yáng, by contrast, is fast, hard,
> solid, focused, hot, dry, and aggressive; and is associated with
> fire, sky, the sun, masculinity and daytime. In the Yì Jíng, there
> are many references to male–female relations in both verbal and
> nonverbal symbols. It begins with the two hexagrams, Ch’ien
> and K’un, which stand for heaven and earth, yáng and yín, as
> well as male and female. In particular, Hexagram 31, Hsien,
> (咸)with the lake above the mountain, refers to the mutual
> 18                                      Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> influence and attraction between the two natural forces.14 In
> addition, Part II of the Yì Jíng also begins with reference to
> male and female.
> Interestingly, in one of his tablets, ‘Abdu’l–Bahá explains the
> story of Adam and Eve as a metaphor for one being the “active”
> force and the other its “recipient.” This might be said to be
> related to the two principles inherent in the Primal Will
> mentioned by Bahá’u’lláh as al-fa’il, the active force, and al-
> munfa’il, its recipient:
> 
> Adam signifieth that reality which is pervasive,
> effulgent and active, that is the manifestation of God’s
> names and attributes, and the evidences of His mercy.
> Whereas Eve is that reality which is the seeker and the
> recipient of the force, the grace, the message and the
> influence — that reality which receiveth the impact of
> all God’s Names and Attributes. [Nakhjavani 72]
> 
> In Chinese cosmology, while heaven may be spoken in some
> social-political interpretations as the “powerful male force” and
> earth as “the weak female force,” the two are theoretically equal
> since Heaven can accomplish nothing unless Earth responds.
> Both men and women go through yín and yáng phases, and the
> personality of each man and women is not a static entity but a
> dynamic phenomenon resulting from the play within masculine
> and feminine phenomena. Yínyáng are correlates which may also
> serve to delineate different stages in life, for example, the first
> half of life, led by yáng, is a time of differentiation, during
> which we understand ourselves and the world by dividing it into
> pieces. The second half is characterized by yín or the tendency
> to make whole, to see and experience the connections between
> things, to replace separateness with harmony.
> However, with time this concept was modified to establish a
> rigid order in which men were supposed to be masculine and
> women feminine. The patriarchal bias of succeeding dynasties
> also saw yín and yáng become associated with moral values, and
> the correlates were subsequently used to explain the polarity of
> light and darkness, and good and bad. Good deeds, for instance,
> stemmed from the principle of yáng, which through the
> patriarchal eyeglass represented principles such as benevolence,
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                          19
> 
> righteousness, propriety, wisdom and faith, and which added to
> the spiritual bank of merit. Conversely, bad deeds stemmed
> from the principles of yín and such principles as passion, anger,
> sorrow, likes, dislikes, desires, and violence and anything that
> caused punishment in the afterlife in the other world. Such an
> interpretation was later symbolized into script so that the
> character for yín (阴) meant the shady side of a slope and is
> associated with qualities such as cold, rest, responsiveness,
> passivity, darkness, interiority, downwardness and inwardness.
> On the other hand, the character of yáng (阳) stood for the
> sunny side of a slope and all that was bright and creative.
> Yínyáng cosmology was also utilized to portray prototypes
> of the human social order e.g., “The ruler is yáng, the subject
> yín; the father is yáng, the son yín; the husband is yáng, the wife
> yín.” Later writers such as Tung Chung-shu (179–104 BCE), a
> major representative of the New Text School,15 taught that
> “Heaven has trust in the yáng but not in the yín” (Bodde 619). The
> patrilineal bias in Chinese culture therefore transformed the
> original theory by elevating the yáng principle at the expense of
> the yín. Not surprisingly, practices such as female infanticide
> and foot-binding, and sale of daughters, have shown the status
> of women in traditional Chinese societies to be unenviable.
> The patriarchal bias to equate yín with passivity and yáng
> with activity is also evident in Western culture. The attempt to
> portray women as passive and receptive and men as active and
> creative goes back to Aristotle’s theory of sexuality and has
> been used throughout the centuries as a “scientific” rationale
> for keeping women in a subordinate role, subservient to men. It
> should be noted that the symbolism of yín as passivity is not a
> problem; the problem is when passivity comes to be viewed as
> undesirable.
> Interestingly, in Bahá’í scripture the feminine principle is
> depicted both as a passive and an active one, which creates,
> empowers, rears, and nourishes. It is not a fixed condition of
> sexuality applied to objects in the created world. Mothering
> images, for example, are used to suggest the divine creative
> principle of the word of God:
> 20                                    Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> Every single letter proceeding out of the mouth of God
> is indeed a mother letter, and every word uttered by
> Him Who is the Well Spring of Divine Revelation is a
> mother word, and His Tablet a Mother Tablet. [GWB
> 142]
> 
> The mothering images are used to suggest the divine creative
> principle of the Word of God. Bahá’u’lláh himself identifies the
> feminine powers of God with the word “Fashioner”:
> 
> No sooner is this resplendent word uttered, than its
> animating energies, stirring within all created things,
> give birth to the means and instruments whereby such
> arts can be produced and perfected. All the wondrous
> achievements ye now witness are the direct
> consequences of the revelation of His name. [GWB 142]
> 
> The theme of masculine-feminine complementarity and
> interaction is manifested in the Tablet of Carmel.16 Drewek
> (1992) refers to this tablet as an instance of the divine
> dramatization of two forces coming together, the Ancient of
> Days as the Manifestation and a feminine personification of the
> Mountain of God, the Queen of Carmel, the site of the
> Manifestation’s holy seat or throne. She describes a kind of
> courtship dance with feelings of separation and longing for
> reunion followed by a kind of consummation between heaven
> and earth. This consummation results in the appearance of “the
> people of Bahá.” In a long-awaited reunion, the feminine
> principle is now ready to shift from a competitive to a
> complementary opposite.
> Unity or harmony does not mean a merging of the two in
> which one is subordinated or sacrificed but rather the
> complementary combination of the two to produce a more
> aesthetically satisfyíng whole. It also does not mean a blurring
> of differences to become an undifferentiated one. ‘Abdu’l-Bahá
> has explained the concept of complementarity in a manner
> reminiscent of the yín–yáng principle:
> 
> The world of humanity consists of two parts: male and
> female. Each is the complement of the other. Therefore
> if one is defective, the other will necessarily be
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                            21
> 
> incomplete and perfection cannot be attained.... Just as
> physical accomplishment is complete with two hands, so
> man and woman, the two parts of the social body, must
> be perfect. It is not natural that either should remain
> undeveloped; and until both are perfected, the
> happiness of the human world will not be realized. [PUP
> 134]
> 
> This is reminiscent of Lao-tzu’s teachings 2,500 years ago:
> 
> Know the masculine;
> Keep to the feminine.
> Be beneath-heaven’s ravine
> To be beneath-heaven’s ravine
> Is to stay with unceasing virtue
> And return to infancy
> 
> Know the white; (yáng)
> Keep to the black (yín)
> Be beneath-heaven’s model.
> To be beneath-heaven’s model
> Is to stay with unerring virtue
> And return to the limitless.
> — Dao-te ching, ch. 28
> 
> It is impossible to read the above without realizing where Lao-
> tzu, living in a patriarchal age, placed his true priorities.
> Replete with yín symbols, it teaches that the sage should adopt
> the yín qualities. Balance is once again stressed as the essential
> condition for harmony. If so, the equality of status between
> men and women is subtly raised.17
> 22                                       Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> The Dao of Health and Healing
> Influenced by Yínyáng cosmology, Chinese medicine is based
> on the premise that the part can only be understood in relation
> to the whole. Unlike Western medicine where cause and effect is
> paramount, for the Chinese physician, it is not so much what x
> is causing to y but rather the relationship of x to y. A symptom
> therefore is not traced back to a cause but is looked at as part
> of a totality. If a person has a symptom, Chinese medicine
> wishes to discover how the symptom fits into the patient’s
> entire bodily pattern. A person who is well or “in harmony” has
> no distressing symptoms and expresses mental, physical, and
> spiritual balance. When the person is ill, the symptom is only
> one part of a complete bodily imbalance that can be seen in
> other aspects of his or her life and behavior. Interestingly,
> Hippocrates (ca 460-600 BCE) also viewed the body as a
> balanced system, able to heal its disorders form within. This
> idea is also embodied in the concept of the Hindu-Buddhist
> karma where the effects of spirit and matter acts on one
> another.
> In contrast, Western medicine is concerned with disease
> categories or agents of disease, which it isolates and tries to
> change, control, or destroy. The Western physician usually
> starts with a symptom and then searches for an underlying
> mechanism that may be a possible cause for a disease. There
> appears to be a foundational belief that a disease is a relatively
> well-defined self-contained phenomenon, although it may affect
> different parts of the body. Hence, there is a penchant for
> precise diagnostic frames of narrow areas so the cause may be
> isolated (Edward & Bouchier, Davidson’s Principles and Practice of
> Medicine).
> 
> However, the basic premise for Chinese medicine rests in its
> orientation in finding imbalances and “righting” it. Balance or
> moderation is the key to the preservation of life. This makes it a
> more likely candidate for “the medicine of the future,” as
> outlined by Abdu’l-Bahá:
> 
> The outer, physical causal factor in disease, however, is a
> disturbance in the balance, the proportionate equi-
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                          23
> 
> librium of all those elements of which the human body
> is composed. To illustrate: the body of man is a
> compound of many constituent substances, each
> component being present in a prescribed amount,
> contributing to the essential equilibrium of the whole.
> So long as these constituents remain in their due
> proportion, according to the natural balance of the
> whole — that is, no component suffereth a change in its
> natural proportionate degree and balance, no
> component being augmented or decreased — there will
> be no physical cause for the incursion of disease.
> [Compilation 1: 465–67]
> 
> Biological rhythms go out of synchronization when there has
> been some violation of natural law, such as the practice of
> harmful habits, repression of emotions, or incorrect diet.
> Unbalance will result in cessation of the ch’i (气), a force or
> energy which may be equivalent to what ‘Abdu’l-Bahá calls the
> “mind force”:
> 
> The mind force — whether we call it pre-existent or
> contingent — doth direct and coordinate all the
> members of the human body, seeing to it that each part
> or member duly performeth its own special function. If
> however, there be some interruption in the power of
> the mind, all the members will fail to carry out their
> essential functions, deficiencies will appear in the body
> and the functioning of its members, and the power will
> prove ineffective. [SWAB 48]
> 
> In addition, ill health is not only a result of imbalance within
> parts of the body or of disharmony between the mind and the
> body but also something that can be brought about by an
> imbalance between the individual and the environment. The
> Yellow Emperor’s Classic (黄帝内经 300 and 100 BCE), the
> Chinese equivalent of the Hippocratic corpus, taught that the
> winds and seasons have marked effects on the human body,
> certain physical conditions being the response to terrestrial
> forces. It was therefore crucial for human beings to act in
> accordance with the seasons so as to avoid disharmony, for each
> person breathes the breath of the universe, tastes its
> 24                                      Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> atmosphere, and reflects its rhythm. Interestingly, modern
> medicine is now beginning to investigate the effect of
> atmospheric and meteorological conditions on the human
> organism, and it has been shown that the number of breaths
> each person draws varies according to the time of the year.
> Much like animals and insects, human beings also respond to a
> circadian rhythm of sunlight. Humans also experience annual
> rhythms, and these have been observed in regular changes of
> bodyweight as well as in seasonal hair loss.
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá explains this inter-dependency:
> 
> For all beings are connected together like a chain; and
> reciprocal help, assistance and interaction belonging to
> the properties of things are the causes of the existence,
> development and growth of created beings. It is
> confirmed through evidences and proofs that every
> being universally acts upon other beings, either
> absolutely or through association. [SAQ 178–79]
> 
> Since the primary objective of Chinese medicine is to restore
> the balance in the body and since each body is different,
> individualized treatment, therefore, becomes one of its
> distinguishing features. As in the Ayurvedic tradition, treatment
> is tailored to the needs of the individual so as to maximize
> immunity to diseases and to achieve balance. Chinese diagnostic
> technique does not turn up a specific disease entity or a precise
> cause, but, rather, renders an almost poetic, yet workable,
> description of the whole person. The therapy then attempts to
> bring the configuration into balance, to restore harmony to the
> individual. In an attempt to discover a pattern of imbalance or
> disharmony in a patient’s body, all relevant information,
> including the symptoms as well as the patient’s other general
> characteristics, are gathered and woven together.
> The validity of individualized treatment of a patient, rather
> than the uniform treatment of a disease, is acknowledged by
> ‘Abdu’l-Bahá:
> 
> The skillful physician does not give the same medicine
> to cure each disease and each malady, but he changes
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                           25
> 
> remedies and medicines according to the different
> necessities of the disease and constitution. [SAQ 94]
> 
> While the Yellow Emperor’s Classic dealt with acupuncture,
> moxibustion, and surgery as a means of restoring balance, one
> major way in which much healing is done is through herbal
> medicine or food. The Chinese have thus developed a complex
> classification of foods which range from cold, cooling and
> neutral, to warming and hot.18 Things are also classified not
> only directly as a yín or yáng in nature but also relative to each
> other. Seaweeds, for example, are yín because they are passive
> plants that grow in the sea. Fish might also be considered yín
> because they live in the sea, but compared to seaweed, they are
> classified as yáng because they are active animals.
> The importance of food as a means of curing illnesses is
> verified in the Bahá’í scriptures:
> 
> When highly-skilled physicians shall fully examine this
> thoroughly and perseveringly, it will be clearly seen that
> the incursion of disease is due to a disturbance in the
> relative amounts of the body’s component substances,
> and that treatment consisteth in adjusting these relative
> amounts, and that this can be apprehended and made
> possible by means of foods. [Abdu’l Baha, Compilation
> 1:465–67]
> 
> Because “medical science appears to be in its infancy” [Abdu’l
> Baha, Compilation 1:473–74], not least because many major diseases
> are treated by invasive surgery, Bahá’ís are meanwhile
> encouraged to “develop the science of medicine to such a high
> degree that they will heal illnesses by means of foods” [Abdu’l
> Baha, Compilation 1:468]. The Faith, however, advices their
> adherents to refer to qualified doctors and mainstream practices
> since an alternative medical paradigm is not yet in place.
> Despite some promising similarities between Chinese and
> Bahá’í perceptions on health and healing, there is one essential
> difference: for the Bahá’í, while medical treatment and a skilled
> doctor may cure a patient, the actual healer, in reality, is God
> [Abdul Baha, Compilation 1:468]. For the Chinese, as long as the
> patient is healed, this is not a relevant consideration. In Chinese
> 26                                     Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> medicine, there is therefore little or less emphasis on the
> spiritual or prayerful aspect of healing, since the existence of
> God is not considered a worthwhile debatable subject. The
> Chinese philosophers have traditionally played down the
> importance of metaphysics and Confucius has gone as far as to
> refuse to answer such questions. Their focus has been to
> emphasize processes, relationships and ethics, rather than the
> concept of the Absolute.
> 
> Conclusion
> The four principles inherent in yín–yáng cosmology —
> relativity, unity, complementarity, and balance — have gone a
> long way in influencing Chinese ideas where the origin of
> creation, historical perspective, gender relationships, and that
> of health and healing are concerned. There is a striking
> similarity of Yínyáng principles with the tenets of the Bahá’í
> Faith despite its separation in time and place. In both the
> Chinese cosmological worldview and the Bahá’í Faith, the idea
> of the unknowability of the Creator and the evolutionary
> development of life on earth is unfolded. Yín-yáng concepts
> have also endowed the Chinese with a capacity to interpret
> events in a larger historical or geographical perspective in terms
> of comparative religion and world unity. Again in both
> worldviews, gender relationships are represented symbolically as
> creative forces which, when in complete balance, results in
> harmony and prosperity. Last but not least, yín-yáng cosmology
> has left its mark on Chinese medicinal theory which,
> corresponding to Bahá’í beliefs, is based on the premise of
> righting imbalances. Perhaps the most profound discovery is the
> fact that Yínyáng has enabled the Chinese to be focused on the
> processes and the relationships rather than an Absolute or a
> single revelatory event. This perspective is propelled by the
> Chinese language which does not differentiate between
> education and religion. In this way, both education and religion
> are foregrounded as the bedrock of civilization since they are
> indivisible. The stress on relationships or ethics puts it in
> profound similarity with Bahai literature which has centrally
> emphasize deeds over words and the fact that actions and
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                         27
> 
> intentions must and should match, irrespective of our
> affiliations to any religious teacher.
> Meanwhile, the yín–yáng paradigm remains a useful one to
> explain socio-political, cultural, and economic imbalances at the
> beginning of the new millennium. In the past, yáng has been
> favored over yín, and the present world seems to have reached a
> point of great social, ecological, moral, and spiritual imbalance.
> It has, for instance, favored self-assertion rather than
> integration, rational knowledge rather than intuitive wisdom,
> analysis rather than synthesis, science rather than religion,
> competition rather than cooperation and expansion rather than
> conservation. Despite being the parent of Yínyáng cosmology,
> present day China has not been spared from a currently
> disjointed view of human life, which has attempted to divorce
> faith from reason and which has departed from the traditional
> attitude of tolerance to one of dogmatic discrimination and
> ideological opposition. Since the last 30 years, China has shown
> a preference for materialism over spirituality and for
> individualism over the common good, an extremely yáng
> condition.
> Nevertheless, we may take heart in the fact that yáng, having
> reached its peak, will eventually retreat since among the laws
> governing change and nature for the Chinese, the most
> fundamental is the one which states that “When a thing reaches
> one extreme, it reverts from it” (物极必反).19
> “New age” ideas are gaining popularity, and there is, for
> instance, the rising concern with ecology, the strong interest in
> mysticism, the growing feminine awareness, and the rediscovery
> of holistic approaches to health and healing. This phenomenon
> was elucidated by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá at the beginning of the 20th
> century, when he explained that the “new age” will be “an age in
> which the masculine and feminine elements of civilization will
> be more properly balanced” [Compilations II:99]. In other words,
> “while the world in the past has been ruled by force, the balance
> has already begun to shift and force appears to be losing its
> dominance to mental alertness, intuition, and service” [ibid.]. It
> is, prophetically, a new age where Yínyáng is once again in
> balance.
> 28                                       Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> B IBLIOGRAPHY
> 
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> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                               29
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> Ross, John. The Origin of the Chinese. Malaysia: Pelanduk
> Publications, 1990. (First published 1916.)
> Toynbee, A. A Study of History. London: Oxford University Press,
> 1934.
> Wadlow, Rene. Futures Bulletin, 26, 3, December, 2000. (A bulletin
> of the World Futures Studies Federation).
> Wang, Tze-ping. “Ta Tung or Universalism.” Star of the West 24,
> 1934 (Translated by Y. S. Tsao)
> Watson, Burton. Selection from a Sung Dynasty Poet: Su Tung-p’o.
> New York: Columbia University Press, 1965.
> Wilhelm. R. The Yì Jíng or the Book of Changes. Trans. Cary F.
> Baynes. 3d ed. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul.
> Wilhelm, R. Change: 8 Lectures on the Yì Jíng. London: Routledge
> and Kegan Paul, 1975.
> 30                                                 Lights of ‘Irfán Book Fourteen
> 
> N OTES
> This paper was presented at the Irfan Colloquium at the Centre for Bahai
> Studies, Acuto Italy, July 2012.
> The oldest manuscript that has been found, although incomplete, dates
> back to the Warring States period (circa 475–221 BC) (Balkin 2002).
> Harmony of difference and sameness by Ts’an-t’ung chi, as translated by
> Ch’an Master Shih-t’ou Hsi-ch’ien (石头希迁禅师) Retrieved on 10
> October 2012 from http://www.sacred-texts.com/bud/zen/sandokai.htm
> Fung, Chuang Tzu 50. See also Magill, Masterpieces of World Philosophy 187.
> Within Chinese medicine texts the Wu Xing are also referred to as Wu Yun
> (五运 wŭ yùn) or a combination of the two characters (Wu Xing-Yun)
> (五行) these emphasize the correspondence of five elements to five
> ‘seasons’ (four seasons plus one). Another tradition refers to the wu xing
> as wu de 五德, the Five Virtues (:五德始终说 五德終始說).
> This contrasts with the literal interpretations of the Bible that the earth is
> only around 6,000 years old. Bahá’u’lláh states: “The learned men, that
> have fixed at several thousand years the life of this earth, have failed,
> throughout the long period of their observation, to consider either the
> number or the age of the other planets” (Bahá’u’lláh, Gleanings 163).
> 7.
> See also Girardot, Myth and Meaning, and the Huai-nan Tzu (淮南子180–
> 122 BCE).
> See Chew, Brothers and Sisters.
> This quotation is taken from the book 《文心雕龙·∙宗经》. 文心雕龙
> (Wenxindiaolong) is a great book on literary critique theories. 宗经
> (Zongjing) is one volume of it talking about ideas of ancient saints
> (confucius and others).
> There was a persecution in 845 AD where more than 4,600 monasteries and
> 40,000 smaller ones were destroyed. The issues were basically political and
> economic e.g. not too many able-bodied men had joined monasteries and
> thus became unavailable for agricultural production and army or labour
> conscription, or too much land belonged to Buddhist church and thus
> became tax exempt. Significantly, confiscated images of bronze were
> made into currency, those of iron into agricultural implements, those of
> gold and silver turned to the Treasury and images of wood, clay and stone
> left untouched. Hence, we may argue that the persecution was not quite
> anti-religious. See Chew, Brothers and Sisters, p. 17.
> The other four are the Indian civilization of Asia the Islamic civilization,
> the Greek Orthodox in Greece, Russia, etc. and Western Christianity in
> Western Europe and America. See Toynbee, A Study of History.
> Yinyang Cosmology and the Bahá’í Faith                                       31
> 
> Plato’s Republic is for example, a model for many. A utopian island also
> occurs in the Sacred History of Eluthemerus (c 300 BC).
> See Chew, Chinese Religion, Chapter 7.
> See Rosemont, Explorations. Also the Yì Jíng.
> The New Text School is the Han Dynasty form of Confucianism which
> were heavily influenced by the five phases and yínyáng theory.
> See Drewek, “Feminine Forms of the Divine” 18.
> Similarly, while Confucius did not have much to say directly about women-
> men relationships, it must be remembered that he placed great emphasis on
> being humane and contributed to basic human rights with his depiction of
> the superior person, the development of the original concept of jen,
> (“every man can cultivate his nature into loving man and embracing all
> men with benevolence”), his belief in the original goodness of human
> beings, his teachings on love and the golden rule. Women are included in
> the Chinese concept of jen or “person.”
> In general, foods which grow or live in ponds, lakes, streams, rivers, seas
> and oceans are colder or more cooling than those which grow on land.
> Watercress, seaweeds, fish and all kinds of seafood, e.g. have cold or
> cooling natures, while carrots, leeks, eggs, chicken and red meats have
> warm or hot natures. The natures of all foods can be changed by the way
> they are cooked. If watercress is stir-fried for example, it is less cooling
> than when it is boiled in a soup. And when chicken is steamed it is less
> “heating” than when it is grilled.
> See Rene Wadlow, “Are we on the threshold of a New Age?” Light Voices,
> 4, 2, 1999, 7-8. In addition, there is a common Chinese saying, which may
> probably be derived from Lao-tzu “returning is the motion of Dao” and
> “to be far is to return.” The idea is that if anything develops certain
> extreme qualities, those qualities invariably change into their opposites.
>
> — *Yinyang Cosmology and the Baha'i Faith (Used by permission of the curator)*