Rethinking China–Taiwan relations as a yin–yang imbalance: political healing by Taiwanese Buddhist organisations

Abstract

For many, relations across the Taiwan Strait appears to be an unresolvable sovereignty-cum-security impasse in the Westphalian world. Drawing analogies and metaphors from East Asian medicine (EAM), we reconceive this apparent zero-sum impasse as an inner imbalance of the China–Taiwan ‘body’ and investigate the possible healing effects of some Taiwanese Buddhist organisations. We identify three interrelated patterns in cross-Strait relations analogous to Spleen qi deficiency, Blood deficiency and yin deficiency. In EAM, the Spleen is associated with holding and its qi deficiency means poor digestion and/or Blood loss. Insufficient Blood is a type of yin deficiency, affecting all the fluids and lubrication of the body. While the cross-Strait movements of people, goods, services and capital have been increasing since the end of the Cold War, the ‘body’ fails to transform such ‘food’ into trust or a sense of ‘we-ness’ as ‘Blood’. We argue that cross-Strait Buddhist exchanges are conducive to conflict transformation, although they do not amount to a cure-all. Specifically, Tzu Chi Foundation’s charity work and Fo Guang Shan’s cultural education in China have cultivated mutual understandings and goodwill at the grassroots level, resembling therapeutic responses that help to relieve some of the symptoms.