Comparisons of the Western use of tones and Chinese tones

In English we already use tones to mark the intentions of the phrase; try saying “house.”, “house!”,“house?”. The question mark “?” correspond roughly to the second, rising tone; the exclamation mark “!” to the fourth, falling tone. The third, falling rising tone, to a very grave sound, try saying as you sing a very low music tone; and the first, high tone, to a tenor sustaining a note like in a opera “Ahhhh”. Try listening to Chinese phrases, if possible slowly and words that you know to get used to them. Tones are not difficult as it sounds.

The two Daos道: The Dao (Tao) we cannot name

The Dao that cannot be named is not really the Dao, as we cannot name it; we call it as a necessary contradiction, “we call it mystery”. We will never know, because we cannot name it, according to Lao zi 老子; although I agree with Laozi, eternity is a very long time.

We treat them as different things but they are really the same, because everything is the Dao. Maybe a manifestation is the Dao without name, maybe they are two things completely different; we perhaps can see, touch, the Dao without a name but we cannot name it Dao without a name, because we cannot be one hundred percent sure it is the ultimate truth, all we see is but our sensorial illusions, our limited view of the existence that is easily deceived.

The internal movement of the Yi jing (I ching) 易经 (易經)

The internal movement, make part of the two basic movements, together with the upward movement. That’s how i call the movement when something too yang 阳 (陽) revert its movement to yin 阴 (陰), and something too yin revert it movement to yang, something that, different from the upward movement, is well known. I call it internal because it occurs internally in a line of an hexagram. Lao zi 老子wrote in the dao de jing 道德经(道德經)“ is the way of heaven diminishing what is in superabundance, and augment what is deficient”.

Care should be taken when analyzing a cyclic and a non-cyclic movement; in a cyclic this movement is perfect, in a non-cyclic is more complicated. Even the simplest day-night and winter-summer movement are not as easy as portraited: there’s for example eclipses, the moon cycles that bring light to the night, there’s earthquakes that change the degree of inclination (even that is slight), resulting in different configurations.

Others versions of this phrase exist, for example “when something become too much it turns into the opposite” which is not exactly what happens, but the movement in the opposite direction, as in my phrase generally occurs. For example in strong and weak, a person could engage in physical exercises and become very strong (full yang) stop sometime and became an average, but not a weak person( full yin) and start doing exercises again and become full yang; in that case a too much yang don’t transforms in a yin person (a non-cyclic movement, semi-cyclic if you see in long term as we are weak when born, increase until around 20 and after decrease).

Discovering what is that “too much”, the apex of the level of yin and yang, again is easy in the cyclic movement but not easy in a non-cyclic movement, Even with semi-cyclic as the outdoors temperature is difficult to see, and should be done by able man with abilities in the yin and yang theory and, for example, meteorology. A day could have 35 degrees and be extremely hot(in some parts of the planet) and yet in the other day be 37 degrees, not starting the opposite direction movement. Of course that’s a good time to bet, or maybe is better saying made studied statistical analyze of the proximity of the sun, masses of hot air, wind, etc, that the movement of turning in the opposite direction (turn in the opposite direction, for example 33 degrees, colder, not turning INTO THE OPPOSITE, as snowing in the next day; in fact a such hot day would be the farthest day of a too yin day), but maybe we have a 39 degrees day in a record of high temperature! Of course after that the probability of turning in the opposite direction is even stronger (it’s statistical) and probably turning in the direction to yin ( getting colder) would occur. See? The more a thing become too much (yin or yang) the more the chance of it turning to the opposite side, it’s statistical. This analysis is not made with guesses but with extreme knowledge of the dao 道, the world that surround us.

the division in 4 parts 四象si xiang four images

The division in two parts, the most basic form of distinction, the 阴(陰)yin and 阳(陽)yang, is simple, but when you start to divide more, difficulties arise, There’s a current discussion if 少阳(少陽)shao yang means (bottom to top) undivided line and divided line or divided line and undivided lines and what represent shao yin; here you will see how complex is the simply division in 4 parts, Imagine the division in 64 parts of the Yi jing, it is 16 times more complex, and the division in 386 line readings makes it even more complex, but don’t be afraid, after you understand how to divide the process of dividing in more parts is simple( unfortunately we can’t say the same about the meaning of this divisions, they got extremely complex).

First I see two ways of doing this division, in much yang, yang, yin, much yin (the way it is not used today) or much yang, yang to yin, much yin and yin to yang(the way it’s used today). For example, in temperature you could divide in very hot as much yang, hot as yang, cold as yin and very cold as much yin(not used today), or, the method used today, very hot as much yang, mild but getting colder, yang to yin, very cold yin, and mild but getting warmer, yin to yang. For more concrete examples of cyclic movements, we could use the seasons: when your hemisphere is close to the sun it is summer, too much yang, when the axis of the earth become well distributed it is autumn, yang to yin, then your hemisphere will be farther from the sun and will be winter, and after that will be even again, and then it’s considered spring, yin to yang; pay attention that the only difference of autumn and spring is the direction their moving (what will come next), both are at the same level of the sun, receiving the same quantity of sun light, and light is yang, energy, heat. For example day and night, noon is much yang, afternoon yang to yin, night yin, mourning yin to yang; again, the mourning and the respective time of afternoon receive the same quantity of light, and produce the same angle of shadows, but one is going to yang and the other going to yin. This become even more difficult when we use non cyclic or semi cyclic movements.

Now the question, shao yang, yang to yin, is bottom line solid and upper line broken or the contrary (by discovering what is shao yang, 少阴(少陰)shao yin becomes evident). I, and, that I remember, Richard Wilhelm, favor the shao yang is bottom line solid and upper line is broken theory, against virtually everyone else. I will not simply say that I favor one or another but will explain why I favor this theory. First is the upward movement, for example when is totally yin, bottom line yin and upper line yin, the start of movement will go to yang, as when something becomes too much turns to the opposite direction, and a yang line will appear; it will appear on the bottom, because down is yang, yang is the beginning, past, the start, where things rise, are created; the once first yin line of tai yin太陰(old yin, very yin) will follow the natural process of going to the future, to the final, of continuing to rise, to the conclusion, and will move to the second place of shao yang, and the once second line will disapear, forming the shao yang: bottom line undivided and second line divided. The process will continue forming two yang lines in totally yang 太阳(太陽 tai yang, old yang, very much yang) and after that producing shao yin, yang to yin, bottom line divided, upper line undivided.

But since the upward movement may seem something new, although I explained it is not, I have a backup theory. It is said that the bagua, the eight trigrams, is formed by adding a third line on top of the four images, although they do not explain how is formed the four images( if we follow this theory of putting a line on top of a existing one, you would obtain exactly the 4 images as I explain they should be), when forming the trigrams you will see that the trigrams composed by a broken line on the bottom and a unbroken line on the top, that is, yin to yang, or shao yang, after added a third line on top creating 震zhen 雷lei thunder, and fire火huo 離li, using the 先天xian tian, pre heaven arrangement, they are in the left, following clockwise movement, that represents yin to yang, mourning, where the sun rise, east, spring, left (in north hemisphere, where is china), and the trigrams composed by the shao yin, wind and water, on the right, west, afternoon, fall, yang to yin. It’s not that lake or marsh represents spring to summer, heaven means summer, wind or wood is summer to fall (according to a diagram in the Richard Wilhelm book); lake and heaven represents summer, wind and water, the trigrams composed by the shao yin are fall, yang to yin, mountain and earth represents winter, and thunder and fire, the trigrams composed by shao yang, represents spring, yin to yang. Fits perfectly!