NO. 4 RELIGION IN SZECHUAN PROVINCE GRAHAM 37 



The dead are in particular affected by and able to use the cosmic currents 

 for the benefit of the living, so that it is to the interest of each family to secure 

 and preserve the most auspicious environment for the grave, the ancestral 

 temple and the home/ 



We should note especially the phrase in parenthesis, " The outward 

 and visible signs of celestial Yang aijd Yin." Under the heading 

 " Yin and Yang," the following lines are also found in the Ency- 

 clopaedia Sinica: 



^'IX aid Van(., 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 (8th century B. C). By the time of Confucius 

 they had acquired a philosophical significance as the two aspects of the duality 

 which 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 

 on the I-Ching. 



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

 The Monad. It is symbolized by the Dragon and is associated with azure colour 

 and oddness in numbers. In Feng Sluii raised land forms (mountains) are 

 Yang. 



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

 Quiescence, Female, Absorption, the Duad. It is symbolized by the Tiger and 

 is associated with orange colour 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 

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

 hexagrams. 



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

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

 are the fundamental feature in the theories which underlie Feng Shut, Astrology, 

 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." " 



Fengshni, then, is the outworking of the yin and the yang elements 

 in nature. It is a my.sterious potency that affects for good or evil 

 the welfare of families, cities, and districts. It is often localized in 

 strange and awe-inspiring trees and stones. It works according to 

 definite laws which the professor of yinyang and fengshui can inter- 



' Encyclopaedia Sinica, 1917, p. 175. 



■ Encyclopaedia Sinica, 1917, pp. 615-616. 



