On The Origin Of The Yin And Yang

The origins of Yin-Yang and the Five elements have been the focus that the academia has probed into all the time. Reviewed these research results since last century and the historical records about Yin-Yang and Five elements in pre-Ts'in period, this article mainly to discuss the background, the course, and the social stratum playing a leading role in this course of their origins. I believe that the conception of Tian-Tao in Spring and Autumn period, which focus on the interrelation between heaven and human, was the social thoughts background of Yin-Yang and the Five elements' developing. It is the historiographers that practiced the conception of Yin-Yang and the Five elements. Furthermore, the historiographers' professional knowledge on astronomy, calendar and astrology became the knowledge background of the Yin-Yang school.1. The background of the Yin-Yang and the Five elements' evolution. Firstly, by reviewing the developing course of Tian-Tao conception in the pre-Ts'in period, especially in Spring and Autumn period, this article believes that the popular Tian-Tao conception, which focus on the interrelation between heaven and human and to predict the good or ill luck by looking into the natural phenomena and astronomical phenomena, has processed the essence of the cosmology of Yin-Yang and the Five elements. Meanwhile, the conception of Yin-Yang and the Five elements was enriched and developed in this atmosphere. So we can say that the Tian-Tao conception actually became the necessarily background of the Ying-Yang and the Five elements' rising and developing.2. It is the historiographers that practiced the conception of Yin-Yang and the Five elements. From Western Chou dynasty to Spring and Autumn period, many historiographers, in the course to explain the Tian-Tao, practiced the new rising conception of Yin-Yang and the Five elements and enriched its meaning, played a leading role in the course of the Yin-Yang and the Five Elements' evolution. Boyang Fu, who is the historigrapher of Chou dynasty, maybe the first person ever recorded to explains the nature by Yin-Yang and the Five-Elements. Lao Tzu, in his Tao te Ching, expressed the conception of Opposites, and it's the first time that Yin-Yang became a pair of philosophy conception. Mo, as the representative of , often used Yin-Yang and the Fiveelements as a way to divine in making political decisions.3. Historiographers' expertise was the knowledge background of the Yin-Yang school. In pre-Ts'in period, historiographers, who familiar with Tian-Tao, lead the development of Tian-Tao, and took the responsibility to connect heaven and human, to explain the structure of the cosmos. Their professional knowledge turn into the basis of Yin-Yang and the Five elements. Take Tsou Yen as an example, his theory has two components, five moralities in circle and Yin-Yang decide fate. The former took Fu-Ying theory as background, and the latter, which was a kind of calendar essentially, both has a direct link with historiographer's expertise. For this reason, Tsou Yen's theory very popular at that time and carried out by many politians.