112 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. I42 



acquired a. philosophical significance as the two aspects of the duality which the 

 Chinese thinkers perceived in all things. Traces of the dual notion occurred in 

 the "Great Plan" of the Shu Ching, but the actual words Yin and Yang as used 

 in this sense occur first in the pseudo-Confucian commentaries of the I-Ching. 



In this way Yang comes to mean Heaven, Light, Vigour, Male, Penetration, 

 the Nomad. It is symbolized by the Dragon and is associated with azure color 

 and oddness in numbers. The Feng Shui raised-land forms (mountains) are 

 Yang. 



Similarly Yin stands for Earth (the antithesis of Heaven), Darkness, Quies- 

 cence, Female, Absorption, the Duad. It is symbolized by the Tiger and asso- 

 ciated with orange color and even numbers. Valleys and streams possess the Yin 

 quality. 



The two are represented by a whole and a broken line respectively, thus ; — 



Yang Yin 



Groups of three such lines are known as "trigrams," groups of six as "hexi- 

 grams," and the I-Ching is classified under the sixty-four possible hexigrams. 



In common with the five elements, the Yin and the Yang have been for at 

 least two thousand years used to interpret the processes of nature, and they 

 are the fundamental features in the theories which underlie Feng Shiti, Astrol- 

 ogy, Divination, and Medicine. 



T'ai (Great) Yang means the Sun, T'ai Yin the Moon, Shao (lesser) Yang 

 the fixed stars, and Shao Yin the planets, these four being supposed to be the 

 four primary combinations (Hsiang) of Yin and Yang. 



Yin and Yang are themselves supposed to have proceeded from a "Great 

 Ultimate." 



Closely related to the yin-yang concept is that of fengshiii. The fact 

 that the tuan kung, the magician or geomancer who is the priest of 

 the Wu Chiao, or Witch Society, or the Society of Black Magic, is 

 also often called the yin-yang hsien-sheng, or the professor of yin- 

 yang, and also fengshui hsien-sheng, or professor of fengshui, sug- 

 gests a very close relation between the two. 



Fengshui is regarded as exceedingly important. No family would 

 build a house or a store without first engaging a fengshui professor 

 and making sure that the fengshui of the place is good. It is believed 

 that if the fengshui of a store is good, the business will prosper. If 

 the fengshui of the house in which the family lives is good, the family 

 will prosper, having numerous descendants, becoming wealthy, and 

 producing scholars and officials. 



Of very great importance is the location of the ancestral graves. 

 If the fengshui of the graves is good, and the coffin and the corpse 

 are pointed in the right direction, the descendants will prosper, in- 

 creasing in numbers and wealth and becoming scholars and officials. 

 If the fengshui of the ancestral graves is bad, calamities will ensue 



