A Comparative Study of Chinese Cosmology Cum-Humorology with Eight Elements

Abstract

As agriculturist, man recognized Earth, Heat and Water as essential to plant life and projected them as cosmic elements. Pastoral man observed animals multiply due to reproduction. He realized that reproduction resulted from the union of opposites as male and female. Projecting reproduction, he conceived creation, which then resulted as the union of the cosmic pair of opposites. Heaven and Earth. The Chinese conceived of creation as starting with creative energy in its latent form, as Thai-Chi, meaning the absolute existence. Later, it assumed its dynamic form called Chhi. It was dual-natured with the opposites called Yang (light) and Yin (darkness). The reproductive power was projected as creative energy called Chhi and male and female opposites were projected as the universal pair of opposites as Yang and Yin. Creative energy produced the cosmic elements which in turn produced all creation. The cosmic elements of Chinese cosmology were Wood, Fire, Water, Earth and Metal. They also included the factors of humorology when the following elements had, as contents, items belonging to humorology, Wood-contained Air, Earth.....Moisture; Metal.......Dryness. By assigning dual-sense to three cosmic elements, Chinese humorology came into existence but has incorporated it in its cosmology. It is easy to equate Air = Vayu of Tridosha doctrine of India, Moisture = Kapha, Dryness = Pitta. Then with five elements of cosmology including three with dual-sense, as belonging to humorology, we have eight elements in all as cosmology-cum-humorology. It is obvious that Air, so important in the cosmologies of India and Greece, is no where explicit in Chinese cosmology.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)