NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM III 



The most important theory in Chinese medicine is that of the yin 

 and the yang, which are beheved to pervade the entire body. When 

 they are properly balanced, the person is well, but when there is a 

 predominance of either one, the person is ill. If the yin predominates, 

 he has a yin sickness, and is likely to have chills. Predominance of 

 the yang produces a yang illness, usually with a fever. All medicines 

 are either yin or yang. For a yin sickness, a person must take yang 

 medicine until the yin and the yang are equally balanced, and then 

 he will be well. For a yang sickness, he must take yin medicine until 

 the balance between the yin and the yang in his body is restored. The 

 interaction between the yin and the yang in the body produces the 

 pulse (Morse, 1928, p. 96). Food is also divided into the yin and 

 the yang, and if not correlated with the medicines and the diseases, 

 treatment of the diseases will be hindered (ibid., p. 103). 



The successful diagnosis and treatment of diseases depend on and 

 are based on not only the doctrine of the yin and the yang, but also 

 on their interaction with the five elements, the five planets, the five 

 colors, and the five tastes (ibid., p. 95). 



A matter of much importance is the fact that in West China many 

 social relationships and customs were permeated with and determined 

 by the yin-yang concept. Yin is dull, female, inferior, while yang 

 is bright, male, superior. Women must sit on the right side of their 

 husbands, for that side is inferior, and men must sit on the left, for 

 that side is higher, and men are superior. Women should obey their 

 fathers, their fathers-in-law, and their husbands, for the welfare of 

 society depends on keeping women in subjection to the men. Women 

 were not educated, for that would make them harder for the men to 

 control. Sons were more valued than daughters, and the social posi- 

 tion of a woman was higher and more secure after she had given 

 birth to a son.^° 



The following quotation from the Encyclopaedia Sinica (Couling, 

 1917, pp. 615-616) is illuminating: 



YIN and YANG, the negative and positive principles of universal life. These 

 words meant originally the dark and bright sides of a sunlit bank and occur on 

 the Stone Drums (6th century B. C). By the time of Confucius they had 



^° I have discussed this theory many times with Chinese friends in West China. 

 All agreed that the above statement of the theory is approximately correct. 

 Most educated women and some men, however, asserted that the principle is 

 wrong, and that there should be equality between the sexes. In my classes in the 

 Union Theological School, I sometimes brought this question up for discussion, 

 and a lively debate would ensue. A few of the men affirmed that the old theory 

 is good, and the women argued for equality between the sexes. 



