http://SaturnianCosmology.Org/ mirrored file
For complete access to all the files of this collection
        see http://SaturnianCosmology.org/search.php
==========================================================


   Chinese Tradition


   Navigation:


   red (Navigator) or bold (Explorer) = illustrations ///// blue = text

   Date:

   Uncertain

   Summary:

   As far as tradition in China is concerned, there is no such thing as a
   colour system as a Western dictionary would define it. In the Western
   world, Aristotle, for example, had attempted to find a harmony of
   colours. The Chinese strove toward similar interpretations, and
   between the 4^th and 2^nd century oriented themselves on the same
   pentatonic scale that dominated their music. Accordingly, they
   accepted that in its entirety colour harmony comprised five basic
   colours: the four cardinal points are defined by red in the south,
   standing for summer and fowls and poultry; green lies to the east and
   represents spring, wood and the dragon; black is to the north and
   stands for winter, water and the tortoise; white is placed in the west
   and represents autumn and the tiger. Yellow, on the other hand, is
   allocated a special place and is therefore discussed in more detail.

   Bibliography:

   J. Needham, Science and Civilisation in China, Cambridge University
   Press; Collin A. Ronan, The shorter Science and Civilisation in China,
   Cambridge University Press, from 1978; "Institut für Geschichte der
   Naturwissenschaften der Chinesischen Akademie der Wissenschaften"
   Wissenschaft und Technik im alten China, Birkhäuser, Basel 1989.


   Chinese tradition regards mankind, society and the world equally, as
   the objects of a global knowledge -- a knowledge which incorporates
   the macrocosm and the separate microcosms it contains. There are no
   laws for the Chinese; only models. This distinction is central if
   Chinese culture is to be understood in the West. At the same time, the
   Western concept of a spirit separate from matter is inconceivable to
   the Chinese, to whom the universe is merely a system of behavioural
   entities which draw no distinction between spirit and matter.

   Equivalents are fundamental to Chinese thought, and because there are
   so many, cataloguing is essential. This also means that areas which to
   the Chinese are closely associated are subject to strict separation in
   Western thought: cosmic and social order, philosophy and medicine,
   geography and nutrition, art and the seasons. To a knowledge oriented
   towards equivalents, the idea of analogy is of great significance:
   contrasts are preferred to opposites. At its centre, then, is the
   reciprocity of terms (alternance) and the references which exist
   between them (correlation): a "marriage of the gods", in the sense
   that human and divine attributes are exchanged. In the Chinese
   tradition, colours are thus to be taken as being part of a latticework
   of equivalents based on five fundamental elements and their products.

   In the illustration, the five basic colours of the Chinese tradition
   are arranged according to their equivalents:

     Red: fire, reaching upwards, corresponds to the south as dictated
     by the traditional Chinese cardinal points, and coincides with the
     warm season of summer.

     Black: water, delving into the depths, is in the north. Its season,
     winter, is marked by the absence of water, which at this time
     gathers in the northern "shallows of the world".

     Green: wood, is in the east and relates to spring. Green, the
     colour of spring, is also the colour of the world of plants.

     White: metal, is in the west, with its season autumn with white as
     its colour -- a white with a blue tint. Incidentally, contrary to
     Western colour-systems, black and white are part of the same circle
     in Chinese colour-systems.

     Yellow: earth. In the code of the five elements, the earth has a
     carrying, supporting function, and thus also assumes the function
     of primary source and nutrition: the plants sprout from the earth,
     from where fire, too, breaks out; metals are extracted from its
     mines, and water flows from its wells. The earth is the centre --
     the colour yellow; its taste is sweet, and its aroma is that of
     perfume. Mankind as the yellow race, the inhabitants of this world,
     stems from this equivalent.

   Two options for interpreting the large illustration are shown in the
   smaller drawing. One is concerned with the Principle of Generation,
   and the other with the Principle of Dominance. In Chinese tradition,
   servants are assigned an important function, since they combine and
   therefore influence the elements. The servant of the generation
   principle is Cheng, and the servant of the dominance principle is
   K'ev.

   The System of Generation is explained in the lower illustration. Its
   servant Cheng is a "constructor" -- an anabolic -- and his
   characteristic is continuity. With this servant as an aid, each
   element becomes the procreator of its follower and the offspring of
   its predecessor (and is thus mother or father, and son or daughter).
   In the system of equivalents, each colour, each animal or each season
   creates the next, while sustaining the essence of its predecessor.
     * The armoured animals like the tortoise, which correspond to the
       north, water and the colour black, procreate the scaled animals
       like the dragon, which are always green, since these belong to
       wood and are located in the east. The scaled animals in turn
       create the fowls and poultry, to which the south and the colour
       red are ascribed. The feathered birds in turn create the
       fur-covered animals, such as the tiger or the horse, which are
       associated with the west, the metals and the colour white.
     * Water brings forth wood, and wood nourishes the fire. Fire (ash)
       fertilises the earth, and the earth brings forth metals. Metal
       creates water.

   The Principle of Dominance is shown in the upper illustration. As
   opposed to Cheng (the servant of dominance), K'ev, is a leveller -- a
   catabolic -- and his characteristic is moderation. According to this
   principle, each element dominates another: the earth sucks up the
   water; water extinguishes fire; fire melts metal, and metal splits
   wood. The sequence can no longer be continuous, as is the case with
   the principle of generation, but merely alternating. The figure thus
   formed is a star -- shaped pentagon with an asymmetric centre. This
   portrayal illustrates the asymmetry implied by Chinese thought --
   which prefers the principle of movement to a structure of stability.

   For a more complete understanding of the traditional Chinese system of
   colours, one principle element is still missing, and this is the
   Chinese term Ts'ing. Ts'ing describes a particular condition of
   colour, more specifically of two colours: green and blue. In Chinese,
   the single term Ts'ing refers to both blue and green. Parallel to this
   term are two further ones: Lu for green and Lan for blue. Naturally,
   the Chinese have no difficulty in distinguishing between green and
   blue, although the term Ts'ing could indeed be misconstrued in this
   respect. Ts'ing means something more sophisticated, namely a specific
   blue and a specific green, in a specific season under a specific sky.
   Ts'ing is the green and the blue found in sprouting nature; it is a
   green-blue that relates to wood and therefore, simultaneously, to the
   east and to springtime. The quality of Ts'ing relates to that part of
   the system which connects the elements, the cardinal points, the
   animals, the parts of the human body and so forth. Ts'ing provides the
   idea of purity and lightness, and signifies everything that is tender,
   bright, clear and fine. When related to colours, the quality of Ts'ing
   signifies their dynamic element, while Lu and Lan represent the static
   aspect of green and blue. Ts'ing is motion, while Lu and Lan describe
   a purely geometrical arrangement of colours. Blue and green contain a
   duality -- they are of dual value, but never of dual meaning.

   The five colours also contribute to the organisation of the world and
   its place within the harmony of the cosmos. The world system suggests
   the idea of a combination of forces or influences and, to an equal
   degree, the same mechanism -- the same interplay -- can be transferred
   to both the physical and the social world. In line with their chosen
   sequence, the relationships between the five colours can be portrayed
   in varying ways, and the resultant figure will either be a convex or a
   star-shaped pentagon.

   Here, the question will also arise as to whether the terms for
   intermediate chromatic hues are known to the Chinese language. Those
   that do exist are evidence of an historical deterioration in the
   perception of the material world in favour of a concentration around
   the five basic colours.

   In addition to green, yellow also corresponds to the Ts'ing. From
   another perspective -- that of the physical world -- this dual
   equivalent can be seen as an experiment, linked as a model to the
   physical double line of sodium, which can be seen in the colour-circle
   within the yellow-red (orange) band. Sodium possesses one of the
   simplest of spectrums, not actually monochromatic but characterised by
   two adjacent lines (589 nm / 589,5 nm) which lie so near that they
   almost coincide and appear to divide the colour-field into two parts.
   The placing of Ts'ing (green-blue) on an equal footing with sodium
   (yellow) marks the place, as an intermediate point, where the exchange
   is completed. The double line of sodium and the dual value of Ts'ing
   unite and separate at the same time, and thus become driving forces.
   The four elements fire, air, water and wood both form and characterise
   each season. A specific element is strong during its season, growing
   weaker in both the adjacent seasons to become minimal during the
   opposite season. During the seasonal cycle, however, the earth remains
   constant. Its purpose is to overcome the inertia of each of the
   separate elements when they are at their minimum. When wood, for
   example, is very weak in autumn, and must strengthen in order to reach
   its maximum in the coming spring, and when its procreator, namely
   water, cannot help, because water is likewise in the phase leading up
   to its maximum, the earth will intervene to stimulate wood until the
   winter solstice arrives. The earth has the task of providing a motive
   force for the world system -- and thus overcoming the inertia of
   cosmic mechanics as a whole. This is why yellow can also be seen as
   the median colour in the symbolism of China.

   © echo productions -- www.colorsystem.com